Connacht Ladies Football Minor Final
Galway 2-17
Roscommon 4-6
Roscommon minor ladies showed just how far the game has come in the county when their great second-half effort just fell short in this thrilling final played in Swinford last Saturday.
Looking back, a slow start, which saw Galway lead by 1-7 to 0-1 by the end of the first quarter was costly, but the team lost nothing in defeat after a superb rally in that second half. Amy Coen was the Galway goalscorer as they piled on the scores early in the match. When the impressive Chloe Miskell added a second Galway goal after Roscommon had got a couple of points it looked bad. But When Sinead Glennon was fouled, Roscommon’s best player Aimee O’Connor converted the resultant penalty and by half-time the gap was manageable at Galway 2-7 Roscommon 1-5.
Roscommon were rampant after the break. Aimee O’Connor blasted the ball to the Galway net after 37 minutes to cut the gap to two. Galway were able to get scores when they most needed them but when Aimee O’Connor scored her third goal Roscommon were back in business again.
Just when Galway looked like they had weathered the storm, sub Mikaela McHugh rattled the Galway net and once again the game was in the balance. But during the ten minutes of injury-time it was Galway who got the vital points they needed to finally shake off a superb Roscommon effort. Now Roscommon play in the ‘B’ championship and on this evidence it will take a very good team to beat them.
Roscommon: A Lavin; A McLoughlin, K Colgan, E Kildea; M Kelly, S Fleming, J Brennan; S McVeigh, S Scally; K Nolan, L Brady, S Glennon; A O’Connor (3-5), E Earle (0-1), A Gavin. Subs: L Curran for Glennon, A Hanmore for Nolan, C Corcoran for Scally, M McHugh (1-0), for Earle, C Finan for Kelly.
