Three national titles in a row for superb Mayo
Mayo, SFAI Girls U16 Inter-League Cup champions.
In a magnificent game football, the Mayo Schoolboys/Girls and Youths AFL U16 Girls won the Inter-League Cup final over South Belfast last Saturday afternoon in Westport.
Playing with the considerable breeze, it was the Belfast side who settled very quickly and Mayo goalkeeper Lauren Cusack had to be at her very best as early as the third minute to claw an effort away from her goal at the expense of a corner. Two minutes later she was called into action again, just getting there ahead of the attacker.
South Belfast went just wide with a good chance in the tenth minute but Mayo were slowly finding their feet at this stage and Siofra McGuinness had Mayo’s first chance two minutes later, but was just off target with the hard working Grace Carroll having created the chance.
Aoibhinn McNamara saw her well hit shot spilled by the goalkeeper, but she recovered to grab the ball at the second attempt. The Belfast right-back then got booked for a cynical challenge on the fleet-footed McNamara.
The remainder of the half played out with South Belfast being very impressive on the ball, passing through the lines but then meeting a Mayo back four defending exceptionally well. Both Mayo full-backs Chloe Fahy and Amy Doherty were winning the majority of their duels while the Mayo Centre-back combination of Ali Gallagher and Maggie Lavelle were generally on top too despite a couple of panicked clearances.
Having weathered the wind in the first half, hopes were high that Mayo would find the going easier in the second 40 minutes but football generally, and finals in particular, are seldom like this. Mayo conceded a soft goal in the opening minute of the half passing on three chances to clear their lines on the edge of the box.
An even softer goal ended up in the Mayo net on 50 minutes and, suddenly it looked like an uphill battle to get anything back. The Belfast goalkeeper made a huge save from McNamara on 53 minutes. Her marker was substituted shortly afterwards as she was walking a red card tightrope. Her replacement was almost immediately in the referee’s notebook for another foul on McNamara – someone had sure done their homework on where Mayo’s threat was.
An excellent Katie Hughes corner kick from the right-hand side was scrambled back out to her and her second effort whistled wide, while Zainab Naeem was to the fore as Mayo attacked non-stop in search of a goal.
A very shrewd substitution by Mayo on the hour mark was to have a big bearing on the game as Sophie O’Donnell entered the fray. Katie Hughes had a free-kick go inches wide while an Amy Doherty free was headed over her own bar by a desperate defender. Sophie O’Donnell was then knocked over inside the corner of the penalty area and Aoibhinn McNamara ruthlessly dispatched the spot-kick. 62 minutes on the clock and, very much game on.
The action was literally all taking place in the South Belfast half at this stage as Mayo laid siege to the goal forcing a number of corners which were well delivered but equally were well delivered. Until the final minute of normal time when Katie Hughes lined up another corner from the right-hand side and only went and scored directly from it to spark huge delight among the sizeable Mayo support. Almost six minutes of stoppage time altered nothing on the scoreboard so into two periods of 10-minute extra time we went.
Siofra McGuinness fired wide in the opening minute and another Mayo replacement Aoife McHugh brought a lot of intensity and physicality to midfield. With time running out in the first period, Sophie O’Donnell made great ground up the left before delivering a cross into the box that Siofra McGuinness hammered to the back of the net off the underside of the bar.
Mayo’s delight at going ahead for the first time was ruined almost immediately as South Belfast plundered an immediate equaliser. The closest anyone came to a goal in the second period of extra time was a Katie Hughes corner that was scrambled off the line leaving the score 3-3 after extra-time Mayo went first in the penalties and Grace Carroll, Katie Hughes, Aoibhinn McNamara and Siofra McGuinness were all perfect scoring everyone. South Belfast matched them for the first three but missed their fourth leaving the Mayo fifth penalty taker the opportunity to win it. Up stepped Ella McLoughlin and scored her penalty with the same zest as the previous four leaving Mayo winners 5-3 on penalties.
This gives this group of players their third National Title in a row under three different managers with Michael Collins managing them to a Gaynor Trophy at U14 level, Sinead Mulhern managing them to the U15 Inter-League Cup last year and Emma Gibbons and Kian Flanagan the management team this year.
It was very fitting that Amy Doherty was the captain receiving the Cup from Tom Mullen from the Mayo Schoolboys/Girls League. Amy is, without doubt, the most decorated footballer -girl or boy - to have lined out for Mayo. Tom’s long time associate Patrick Lambe was in attendance as was Head of the Mayo Girls Emerging Talent, John Flanagan.
