Armagh City Hotel Ulster Senior Camogie Championship semi-final
Derry 1-15 Down 0-5
DERRY opened this game in Owenbeg as if they wanted to take their Croke Park frustrations from a fortnight ago out on a Down side that now carries much less of a scoring threat than the one that won the title this time last year.
Derry had four points registered before Down captain Dearbhla Magee opened her side’s account with an excellent long-range point after eight minutes and were 0-7 to 0-3 ahead by the midway point of the half.
Áine Barton accounted for four of those, including two frees, while Aoife Shaw also hit the target twice and Olivia Rafferty angled one over from the left wing in the fifth minute.
Suddenly, however, the scoring dried up and Down, who had only mustered one shot at the target in the opening quarter, came more into the game. Going into the break they had narrowed the gap to 0-7 to 0-3 with a free from Ciara Fitzsimons and another monster score from Magee.
However, a minute from the short whistle, the ball was played out of the Derry defence down the left wing to Rafferty who squared to Orlaith Hull. She found Shaw inside the Down cover and the Lavey forward hit the roof of the net.
Derry then pushed on in the opening 10 minutes of the second half with four scores, including three from frees.
Down had a decent spell around the midway point of the half, but accumulated four wides and just one score – a Fitzsimons point.
Áine Barton pointed from long range to get her team going again with 10 minutes remaining and they ran out comfortable winners to meet Antrim in the final.
Scorers
Derry A Shaw 1-3 (0-2); Á Barton 0-8 (0-5f); D O’Kane, O Rafferty, O Hull & A Cassidy 0-1 each
Down C Fitzsimons (2f) & D Magee 0-2 each; C Byrne 0-1
