Super Saturday as Mayo teams win five from five
Enjoying the home advantage of Solar 21 Park, Mayo's U14 girls team recorded a huge victory over visitors Roscommon.
The Mayo Schoolboys/Girls League had a very healthy total of five girls sides taking part in the SFAI Inter League competitions on Saturday, November 11 last.
Kicking off first at Solar 21 Park was the Mayo U13s who faced Longford. Mayo took the lead early on courtesy of a fine strike from Ella Connell and doubled their lead early in the second-half through Saoirse Reynolds. The visitors pulled a goal back late in the game but Mayo held on for a fine 2-1 victory.
Next up, also at the Castlebar venue, were the U14s who hosted Roscommon. A fairly even first-half, after which Mayo led 2-0 with goals from Emily Coleman and Caoimhe Kitching, gave little indication as to how one sided the second-half would be.
A Caoimhe O’Donnell corner-kick was tapped in by Kayla Helly who then turned provider for Ava Mitchell to score from the edge of the box. Ava soon added her second as did Coleman after being set up by the outstanding O’Donnell. An Anna Meaney turnover allowed Mitchell to complete her hat-trick before O’Donnell brilliantly scored directly from a corner.
Mitchell had another goal after good individual play before Anna Burton won the ball high up the pitch and scored. Burton completed the scoring shortly after in an impressive outing for John Hennelly’s young charges who ran out 11-0 winners.
Next up, kicking-off at 1.30pm in Ballyare, Letterkenny, the Donegal U15s hosted their Mayo counterparts. Wet, soggy slippery conditions were the order of the day here and Mayo made a nervy, cautious start.
Things soon settled down though and both teams started to play some good football. Doireann Lynch gave Mayo the lead, being set up by Ciara Kearney but the home side pounced on a lack of communication in the Mayo defence to tie the game up at half-time. Three goals in quick succession arrived in the second-half. Riona Moynihan restored Mayo’s lead with a fine run from midfield followed by a lovely left footed chip into the far-right corner of the net. Donegal equalised for the second time with a shot that skidded through Mayo ‘keeper Sarah Gallagher’s hands. Moynihan then won a penalty which she slotted into the bottom left-hand corner to give Mayo a 3-2 victory.
The youngest team of all, the U12s, kicked off at 2pm in Tullamore facing Midlands. Michael McGeough’s young charges were simply phenomenal here, running out 4-0 winners with the goals coming from a brace each from Ailis Harte and Lexi Murphy.
Both sets of managements then played a second game for squad members who didn’t get much game time in the main match. Mayo were equally as impressive here winning 5-1 with goals by Elizabeth McFeteridge, Violet O’Malley, Aoife Durkan and Darcey Duffy. This strength in depth augers well for the future.
The eldest of all the girls teams kicked-off at 2.30pm with the U16s facing Roscommon in Lecarrow.
The Mayo girls opened brightly and Ursula Shaugnessy, Cliodhna Dowling and Alana Kelly all went close early on. Dowling beat the home ‘keeper in a foot chase on 18 minutes only to see her final effort go narrowly wide. In a carbon copy five minutes later, she got on the end of Aoife Collins’ lofted forward ball to bravely give Mayo the lead.
Dowling doubled her personal tally on 33 minutes when her pace again caught out the home defence. Dowling almost had her hat-trick early in the second-half with her effort just the wrong side of the post after superb approach play by Caoilinn Gilmartin.
Mayo were excellent in defending a number of Roscommon corners and from one such counter attack, Emma Higgins was unlucky not to add to Mayo’s lead. Kate Guilfoyle in the Mayo goal made a superb save two minutes from time to preserve Mayo’s clean sheet and ensure that they ran out comfortable 2-0 winners.
Mayo Girls League Emerging Talent head coach John Flanagan noted the following evening his immense sense of pride at the league being able to field five teams at various age groups across the weekend. He commended the management teams, some starting out with their first teams and others into their second decade but all with one common denominator: all volunteers and all only concerned about the betterment of the girls.
He laughingly invoked Del Boy with his final comment: “I suppose we have had worse days!”.
