Our ladies team travelled to Shiven Rovers last week to renew old rivalries, this time in the Roscommon pre-season ladies competition. Colemanstown had a super team on paper and for the first time in the competition there were 6 subs on the bench to keep the ladies rolling on & off. From the start of the first half right through the game, Colemanstown took the game to Shiven Rovers putting them under pressure so much so that Shiven’s defenders found themselves hoofing the ball out of defence for the lively Colemanstown attackers to get going. Unfortunately the ball in the last quarter of the pitch wasn’t falling too kindly for the ladies and Colemanstown were second to the ball in the times that really mattered which resulted in a scoreless first half.
The second half started in the same vein with Colemanstown on top with the hosts under some pressure. 10 mins into the second half Colemanstown midfield had control of the ball and from nowhere a Shiven midfielder hoofed the ball and it went skywards towards the Colemanstown goal and with Ashley Roberts off her line, the ball dipped helplessly just over the outstretched arms of Ashley Roberts making it 1-0 to Shiven Rovers. Colemanstown had lots of outstanding performances after this with Sammi Chang making darting runs down the right and squaring the ball into Sinead McManus who tried her best to get the goal back but was well marshalled by the Shiven defence. Lucy Kenny put in another great performance drawing good saves from the Shiven keeper but as time wore on Colemanstown’s missed chances were mounting. Shiven went on the attack again in a similar passage of play to their earlier goal and another hoofed ball from defence had the Colemanstown backs and keeper in disarray and a Shiven striker nipped in and rolled the ball into an empty net. 2-0 it finished while the score far from reflected the game and Colemanstown’s dominance.
Squad: Ashley Roberts, Claire Keane, Aoife Donoghue, Katie Delaney, Laura Parker, Issa Harun, Sarah Keane, Rebecca Clancy, Lucy Kenny, Sammi Chang, Sinead McManus, Chloe Gill, Yvonne Keary, Rachel O’Brien, Jessica Doherty, Ashling Hanley.
This was a valuable lesson for Colemanstown ladies who have now found themselves in the bottom 4 places in the table and will now contest for the shield to play the winners of Ballinasloe Town vs St. Cuans Utd, Ahascragh in the Shield Final scheduled for Leecarrow at RDFL Headquarters on Sunday Aug 14th – time yet to be announced. It will be a first final for the ladies in quite a while. Match report by Philip Dee.