Randles Brothers: Semi Final Intermediate Championship

14th Sept 2020 Venue: Castleisland Desmonds

Spa 1-11 Castleisland Desmonds 2-18

The senior ladies bowed out of the Intermediate Championship last Monday night against the bookies favourite Castleisland. This was a huge accomplishment for our ladies as they were never even mentioned at the start of the year to even reach the playoff stages. Our ladies played hard but unfortunately our top scorer Niamh Kearney and goalie Linda Bruggener were out due to prior commitments and were a huge loss to the team. However, this was never an individual but a team effort to get us this far including the full 34 on the panel. Caoimhe Claffey played brilliantly between the goals. We knew we were up against it and the home team started very strong and definitely played superior football in the first half. They were very strong through the centre of the field and their mid field duo of Cait Lynch and Lorraine Scanlon were their driving force. Our girls with their never say never die attitude took their chances and we were climbing a huge hurdle at half time down 0-3 to 2-9.

Second half we clawed back with great football and were very unlucky with some scores. We opened up midfield and delivered ball to our hungry fowards. Young Mairead Bennett scored a cracker of a goal coming from the back line. Full forward, Saoirse Kelly, stepped up her game and tapped over impressive scores. Playing a captains role, Ciara Moynihan rifled through their defence numerous occasions and was rewarded with her name on the score sheet. Corner forward Lynn Jones added enormous points and was very unlucky with another goal. This was a game of two halves and we began to win possession but unfortunately the deficit was too far and we lost to a stronger team on the night. The team can be very proud of themselves as this was the first year since 2011 when we first produced a senior team to have such great numbers at every training session. Well done to management Mike Brosnan and Tom Tobin for their Trojan work and huge dedication to the senior ladies. We will be back in 2021 and ready to go the next step closer to our goal in the Intermediate Championship. Thanks also to Shane Cronin of Gaelic Plus for the sponsorship of gloves given to the team.

Spa: Caoimhe Claffey, Elisabeth Stack, Ciara Moynihan (0-1), Aisling Mahony, Gina Crowley, Katie O Brien, Mairead Bennett (1-1) , Loretta Maher, Cassandra Buckley, Katie O Connor , Mags Cronin, Liadh Tobin, Karol Fleming (0-1), Saoirse Kelly (0-4) and Lynn Jones (0-3). Subs: Meghann Cronin (0-1) and Alma O Mahony

Photos: Anne Holland