U16 Girls March Into A Championship Final

On Saturday morning the u16 girls had an early throw-in for their A championship semi-final v The Martins. There was a serious mood among the girls and they were certainly up for the challenge ahead of them. Ailish won the toss and elected to play with the breeze, with the Gers attacking straight from the throw-in.

Despite having the lions share of the early possession this wasn’t being reflected on the scoreboard. However when the Martins would break the defenders were quick to snuff out any scoring opportunities and would turnover ball to help launch more attacks on the opposition goal. The girls would finally settle down following the first water break and would outscore the Martins by 1-04 to 0-1 to go in at half time leading by 2-05 to 0-02.

The girls knew that the Martins would bring the game to them in the second half especially as they would have the wind behind them and they would need to work hard to keep their noses in front. It wasn’t long before the Martins turned the screw and forced the girls onto the back foot. In the space of 5 minutes or so the Martins scored 1-03 to seriously threaten the Gers lead. A couple of positional changes would stem the onslaught with the Gers getting a great breakaway point to stay out in front and would lead 2-06 to 1-07 at the second water break.

The girls knew they would have to pull out all the stops in the last 15 minutes to stay ahead and they put everything they had and more into the remainder of the match. In an enthralling and nerve-racking last 15 minutes, both teams went for it in an end to end the battle with the Gers scoring 4 points to the Martins 2. The ref would blow the final whistle to signal elation among the Gers girls and their supporters.

Every girl on the pitch gave it their all today, running themselves into the ground, fighting hard for possession and each other, and the win is deserving of the hard work all of the girls have given since the season began.

The final score was 2-10 to 1-09. Well done to all of the girls involved and thanks also to the great support on the bank. Huge credit also must go to the Martins for playing their part in a very entertaining game. The final is due to be played next Saturday against Cooley.

Scorers were Méabh 1-02, Karina 1-0, Alex 0-2, Sophie 0-2, Rachel 0-02, Anya 0-01 and Katie 0-01.