It was a scrappy start by both sides but as time passed, Colemanstown grew in confidence throughout. The back 4 of Ciara Lally, Niamh Raftery, Aoife Donoghue and Laura Parker always fought tooth and nail while playing a relatively high line. Shiven’s only threats came through their No. 10 who was making runs behind looking for the long ball. Orla McCaffery was immense in goals as she was able to clear the danger for all these through balls.
After surviving the monsoon of rain, our ladies kept working hard to Shiven’s frustrations. Orlaith Hannon in the engine room worked her socks off both on and off the ball. Chances were becoming limited in front of goal but when the ball popped through from Niamh Flannery, Orlaith made no mistake to calmly slot home and open the scoring. Amy Kenny, Niamh Flannery, Teresa Loughnane and Ciara Naughton worked tirelessly all game with a real never say die attitude and kept the momentum going.
The second half started with the expected improvement in Shiven from the half time talk but Colemanstown were having none of it with Aoife and Niamh being equal to the physical challenges of Shiven. Mary Walsh was her usual thorn in the backside and made those gut buster runs throughout. 15 minutes into the second half, she broke through on the right only to be taken down by the Shiven centre back. Up stood Orlaith to coolly slot the penalty into the bottom corner. With a half an hour left, the Colemanstown bodies were tiring but the work ethic never faded. Teresa won a ball in the centre circle and hit a direct through ball to Mary’s perfectly timed run. She kept her composure and slotted the ball past the keeper to put Colemanstown 3 up. 20 minutes remained and Shiven kept pushing up bodies and making changes. Their centre back moved up to centre forward and gave the defence a torrid time striking twice in a 10-minute spell where Colemanstown lulled slightly.
These quickfire goals seem to give Colemanstown a wakeup call and the tanks were well and truly emptied to hold out for the win.
So a day out in Eamonn Deacy Park to cap off, at times, a difficult first season back for the ladies’ team. With the conveyor belt of talent that is coming through the club at the minute, the future is looking extremely bright.
