Football

Derrygonnelly look to stop Kinawley going 'fourth' in Fermanagh ladies' final

Fermanagh county star Joanne Doonan will be hoping to captain her club Kinawley to a fourth consecutive senior county title
Fermanagh county star Joanne Doonan will be hoping to captain her club Kinawley to a fourth consecutive senior county title Fermanagh county star Joanne Doonan will be hoping to captain her club Kinawley to a fourth consecutive senior county title

O’Neills Fermanagh Senior Ladies' Football Championship final: Kinawley (holders) v Derrygonnelly (today, Donagh, 8pm)

KINAWLEY are targeting a fourth consecutive senior title when they face Derrygonnelly in this evening’s decider in Donagh.

The defending champions defeated their opponents just a few weeks ago on their way to clinching a fourth Division One league title on-the-trot. That day they had a 3-10 to 1-14 win and they will go into this evening's final as favourites.

Should they do the business it will be title number five overall for the Brian Boru's but Derrygonnelly will be out to stop that from happening.

They lost last year’s final by four points, 1-11 to 0-10 but have looked impressive on their way to the decider with victories over Newtownbutler in the preliminary round, 4-11 to 2-3, and Devenish in the semi-final on a scoreline of 5-20 to 1-10.

Kinawley defeated Tempo in their preliminary round game, 3-10 to 2-4, a scoreline not dissimilar to Derrygonnelly’s in their first round game while their semi-final against Aghadrumsee was postponed because of a bereavement and the rescheduled game did not take place on Wednesday night with Kinawley progressing to the final.

Those results suggest plenty of scoring threats on both sides and both defences will certainly have their hands full. The outcome of this could well come down to which defence can curtail that threat the best.

In Eimear Smyth, Derrygonnelly have one of the county’s star forwards and she will lead the charge against Kinawley. Captain Andrea Gordon will lead from the heart of defence while the likes of Sarah Jane Jones, Aoibhinn Jones, Bronagh Smyth, Brenda Bannon and Dearbhla Duffy will all be key to the Derrygonnelly challenge.

Kinawley have a number of Fermanagh county players including their captain Joanne Doonan, county captain Courteney Murphy, Roisin O’Reilly, Erin Murphy, Eimear Keenan and Niamh McManus as well as former county players Aine McGovern and Shauna Melanaphy.