Depleted Milltown bow out of Leinster to strong St Vincent’s outfit
St Vincent’s progressed past the Kildare champions with a 2-13 to 0-6 win
The absence of Lara Curran and Lauren Murtagh as well as Naoise Wilson proved too much for Milltown and they bowed out of the Leinster LGFA Junior Championship, losing to Dublin champions, to St Vincent’s at the semi-final stage on their home ground on Saturday afternoon.
Facing the Dublin Champions was always going to be a task in itself but the absence of three of the key players from the County Final made the task impossible. Milltown stuck to their task impressively until a ten-minute period before half time when their kick out strategy failed on two occasions and Vincent’s sharp shooter and captain, Ava Lambe punished the mistakes with two goals.
Milltown full back, Aoife Murray, had a fine tussle with Lambe who contributed 2-7 of the Vincent’s total. Opposing captain, Ciara Buckley was the only scorer Milltown and she had three points on the board, two from frees, by half time but it was the Dublin champions who led 2-6 to 0-3 at the break.
Milltown keeper, Cliodhna Malone, made a couple of fine saves from Lambe and Robin Fitzpatrick in the opening thirty minutes. With Ciara Buckley now operating at full forward at the start of the second half, Milltown enjoyed a period of dominance but the final pass always failed them and they never really threatened the Dublin Champions goals.
An Ava Lambe free lifted the siege and she helped herself to four further points in the half while Ciara Buckley helped herself to three more for Milltown. Vincent’s played the final ten minutes of normal time without the sin binned Eabha Murray but still outscored Milltown, 0-3 to 0-2 to qualify by thirteen points for the Leinster LGFA Junior Final.
Scorers, St Vincent’s: Ava Lambe 2-7 (2 frees), Eabha Murray 0-2, Robin Fitzpatrick 0-2 (1 free), Roisin Gilmore 0-1, Dearbhla Parker 0-1.
Milltown: Ciara Buckley 0-6 (4 frees).
ST VINCENT’S: Louise Hennessy; Kate McGovern, Isabel Fitzpatrick, Clodagh O’Gorman; Roisin Rooney, Tessa Lambe, Isabelle Dunne; Eimear Adamson, Roisin Gilmore; Eabha Murray, Ava Lambe, Dearbhla Parker; Caitlinn McKenna, Robin Fitzpatrick, Aoife Gallagher. Subs: Clodagh Glennon for Caitlinn McKenna 52, Aoife Lambe for Kate McGovern 56, Ruth Cosgrave for Roisin Gilmore 58, Shana Rose Suelo for Tessa Lambe 60, Ava Crowley for Ava Lambe 63.
MILLTOWN: Cliodhna Malone; Lisa Byrne, Aoife Murphy, Claire Sweeney; Aoife Buckley, Anne Sweeney, Maeve Lavelle; Emma Shannon, Ciara Buckley 0-6; Eimear Byrne, Chloe Byrne, Katelyn Coleman; Grace Donohoe, Katie Walshe, Lisa Murphy. Subs: Sarah Coleman for Eimear Byrne 16, Sorcha Casey for Chloe Byrne 49, Annie Mae Dunne for Kisa Murphy 57, Leah Walker for Sarah Coleman 58.
REFEREE: Ian Culbert (Wicklow)