Schoolgirls get their interleague seasons underway

The Mayo Schoolboys/Girls and Youths AFL had four of its schoolgirl squads in SFAI Interleague action on the weekend of October 17/18.

This was the opening match of the group stages for each squad. The first of two matches at the home ground of Westport United on the Saturday was the under-16s who faced Sligo-Leitrim. Mayo got off to a flying start after three minutes when Lucy Carolan sent Maya Benson through on goal and Maya calmly slotted the ball away.

The visitors then took the game to Mayo in an end-to-end encounter that was a terrific advertisement for girls’ football. Sligo-Leitrim levelled matters in the 11th minute and went ahead in the 35th following a defensive mix-up. Mayo drew level within a minute from a fine individual goal leaving both sides tied 2-2 at half-time.

Both teams made a few changes at the interval and Mayo created a number of good chances but were punished by a Sligo-Leitrim goal on the counterattack. Try as they could, Mayo could not get the goal that they craved, and the visitors scored a fantastic goal from distance on 74 minutes to run out 4-2 winners on the day.

The Mayo under-12s then made their debut at this level facing Midlands League. Two incredible top class saves early in the game helped to keep the opposition out and in front of the goalkeeper, a resolute and rock-solid backline began to work beautifully as a unit, remaining composed under pressure to clear danger and build play constructively out of defence.

Said defence linked up seamlessly with a hardworking, creative centre of the field. The Mayo midfielders dominated the engine room, pulling the strings and playing a series of superb defence-splitting balls through to the clinical forward line. This fantastic team movement was rewarded when Roise Duggan showed her lethal finishing ability, turning the midfield service into two brilliant goals to power the team forward.

A 2-0 victory to Mayo and, in their first ever game together, the Mayo girls displayed incredible teamwork, spirit and skill.

On the Sunday, two games were played at Umbro Park, Castlebar, with both the under-13s and under-14s facing their Galway counterparts. First up was the younger side facing last year’s Interleague winners. Mayo started very well and for the opening 15 minutes looked the better team before Galway opened the scoring with a goal against the run of play.

A second rather fortuitous goal soon followed but Mayo regrouped and competed well for large parts of the game. Galway demonstrated their quality with some excellent passing and movement and ran out comfortable winners in the end.

Mayo showed promise though and will be looking forward to their next assignment in Clare in two weeks’ time.

The final game of a hectic weekend saw another Mayo/Galway tussle this time at U14 level. Galway had the first sight of goal in the fifth minute, being just off target. A Sadhbh McDonagh corner for Mayo a minute later was well defended with the Galway counterattack again going close.

The visitors took the lead in the 10th minute when the Mayo girls failed to deal with the second ball following a free-kick. This was to be a recurring theme in this game. Anna Holmes brought a superb save from the visiting goalkeeper in the 15th minute and from the resulting Aine Hughes corner, an Anna Jennings effort was blocked. Mayo’s best chance of the first half came in the 26th minute when Laoise Heneghan won the ball back high up the pitch and her rasping effort shaved the outside of the post. Ellen O’Flaherty in the Mayo goal brought off a superb save as the first-half concluded.

The second half continued the theme of the first with Galway displaying a high technical ability, but the Mayo girls’ work ethic was simply outstanding. Both sides had early chances with Anna Jennings getting crowded out after a fine dribbling run and Nessa Lenihan working the visiting custodian. A 90 second spell in the 50th minute settled the game when Galway scored twice from set plays. Undaunted, Mayo still fought tooth and nail in open play with Lucy Duffy being just wide firstly before stinging the goalkeeper’s hands with a well struck free-kick. Chloe Albers was very unlucky not to score too but it was Galway who sealed a flattering 4-0 victory with yet another goal from a set piece in stoppage time.

Mayo can take loads of positives from this game. 19 players got game time against a superb footballing side. They were also quite fantastic in how they matched such a very impressive side in open play.

Lots of work required on the training ground in other areas though and that starts at the next training session. Pearse Concannon was referee for both the Sunday games.