U-13 Girls win autumn league title

This division 2 league final played on a very sunny Saturday morning in Johnstownbridge brought the two table toppers together to decide the title.

When the two teams met in the league it was a high scoring drawn game so all was to play for. The ball was thrown in and the very impressive Sarsfields pairing of Kellie Fisher and Niamh Carey won the ball transferring it swiftly to Molly price a quick pass set up Molly Cassidy to score a low shot to the net within the first 20 seconds.

The ball from the preceding kick out was broken down by Kate Coleman and won by Juliet Odief who passed the ball to Molly Cassidy to score her second goal within a matter of minutes.
This was a great start by the Sarsfields girls and the Clane girls were finding it extremely hard to compete for clean ball with Kellie Fisher and Niamh Carey dominating at midfield and with the ever menacing Molly Price roaming around the pitch picking up breaking ball.

The Clane centre back Ciara Murray started to win good ball and played a long ball into the full forward Danielle Murphy who struck a good shot at goal just to be denied by a brilliant block down by the impressive Eimear Maher in The Sash goals. The game was now being played at a good pace on a poor pitch and with Melissa O’Brien at centre back a driving force for The Sash dominating the game to the frustration of the impressive Clane centre forward Annie Harper it was going to be hard for Clane to breach The Sash defence.

The next score for Sarsfields came from a great ball from Kellie Fisher to Molly Price who picked the ball up on the Clane 45 yard line and with her trade mark solo run she ripped open the Clane defence and scored the third goal for The Sash. The next score by Sarsfields was from a free flowing move from Melody Chikwe to Melissa o Brien who powered forward to switch the ball to Molly Price who dispatched the ball over the bar for a point.

The Clane players started to get on top and moved the ball forward through the impressive Sara Cribben who passed the ball into the forward line but the shot was expertly blocked on the goal line by Niamh Hannon who was playing with great purpose and composure.

The next score came from a break down in play with Kellie Fisher fielding a quick ball to Molly price who cut through the Clane defence again and firing the ball into the back of the net with her left foot to put The Sash further ahead. Half time 4-1 to 0-0. The second half first score was from a long range free by Kellie Fisher who dispatched the ball into the Clane net from 40 yards out. Clane started to play their best football and scored two unanswered points and they seemed to be starting a comeback only to be deterred by the impressive work in the back line from Niamh Hannon and Orlaith Taylor who continued to put in a solid performance and with Eimear Maher mopping up ball in The Sash goal it was going to be very hard for Clane to score.

The next score for Sarsfields was from an expertly fielded ball by Niamh Carey at midfield to Alannah Hillard at full forward who with a quick hand pass set up Molly Price who slipped the ball over the bar with ease. The final score of the game was to come from the player of the game Kellie Fisher who scored another long range goal into the Clane net. This was very sporting contest and Sarsfields ran out deserved winners.

Best for Sarsfields were Eimear Maher, Niamh Hannon, Orlaith Taylor, Melissa O’Brien, Kellie Fisher, Niamh Carey, Molly Price and Molly Cassidy.

Team: Eimear Maher, Orlaith Taylor, Niamh Hannon(capt), Shauna Walsh, Melody Chikwe, Melissa O Brien, Ashley Ward, Kellie Fisher(2-0), Niamh Carey, Juliet Odeif, Kate Coleman, Molly Cassidy (2-0), Meabh Manning, Alannah Hillard, Molly Price (capt) (2-3) Alison Law, Eimear Loakman, Louise White, Madeline Ronayne, Sarah Brady.