Littlewoods Ireland National Leagues
Division One: Down 0-8 Galway 4-17
THREE goals and seven points in the last 10 minutes gave the scoreline the expected one-sided look in favour of All-Ireland senior champions Galway in Liatroim. But up until that point, Down were very competitive.
In fact the difference between the teams at half-time was a Rebecca Hennelly goal in the 21st minute when she fired home from 20 metres after being put in the clear.
Down had Niamh Mallon back in the fold after Portaferry’s exit from the club championship last week and she found the target on four occasions as the Mourne side trailed by 1-5 to 0-5 at the break.
For the first 20 minutes of the second half, the home side fought well and only conceded five more points, four of which came from Carrie Dolan, including three frees.
Eventually, however, the dam burst, triggered by Hennelly’s second goal in the 53rd minute. Within another four minutes Galway had hit the net a further two times and Hennelly had completed her hat-trick. Aoife Donohue got the other goal in the 56th minute while Niamh Mallon also scored three points during the final 10 minutes.
In the same group, Dublin had a comfortable win over a young Offaly team who are still short their St Rynagh’s contingent. Aisling O’Neill was the goal scorer in the first half and she went on to record 1-5 while Aisling Maher scored five points as Dublin won by 1-12 to 0-2.
Meanwhile, in Group Two, Cork strolled to a facile 5-17 to 0-6 win over Limerick in Páirc Uí Chaoimh with former Down forward Sorcha McCartan repeating her return from last week with a goal and a point in the first half.
The other goals came from Amy O’Connor (2), Cliona Healy and Izzy O’Reagan.
In the game earlier in the day Kilkenny needed a point right at the death from Kellyann Doyle to snatch a 1-8 to 0-10 victory over Clare at Cusack Park.
Miriam Walsh’s goal in the 27th minute separated the teams at half-time, 1-4 to 0-4. However points during the last quarter from Caoimhe Carmody, Lorna McMahon and Emer Kelly levelled the game with just over a minute of normal time remaining.
Added time left just enough time for Doyle to snatch a winner and it means that Kilkenny will now play Cork on March 12th for a place in the final as group winners.
Galway: R Hennelly (3-2), A Donohue (1-2), C Dolan (0-5, 0-3 frees), A O’Reilly (0-3), N Kilkenny (0-2), Á Keane (0-1), C Finnerty (0-1), S Rabbitte (0-1).
Down: N Mallon (0-7, 0-4 frees), A McAleenan (0-1).
Division Two: Derry 2-8 Kildare 0-6
DERRY needed a win in Banagher on Saturday against visiting Kildare and they achieved that with a controlled performance in the difficult blustery conditions against visitors who offered little more than points from Lea Sutton frees.
Manager Martin Coulter just wanted the win to get off the bottom of the group table.
“The wind was terrible but I thought we fought very hard. Our handling was pretty good and we made the right calls on the ball.
“Shannon (O’Doherty) and Rachel (Downey) played very well as the two spare players and used the ball wisely keeping the clearances away from their sweeper. And we basically wore them down.”
Derry coped better with the conditions although it was a surprise their opponents set up with two sweepers at the back during the first half when they had any advantage the difficult wind was allowing.
Sutton fired over twice and Emer Reilly then pointed after a good move involving Sophie Brown to put Kildare two up after 13 minutes.
However, Derry responded from the puck-out with Áine McAlister and Rebecca Bradley doing the spade work for Aoife Shaw to burst through down the middle. Her initial shot was blocked but the Lavey player swept a ground shot to the net.
Derry then finished the first half strongly with points each from McAlister (free), Gráinne McNicholl and Maria Rafferty to lead by 1-4 to 0-4 at the break.
Aoife Shaw twice fired over from distance at the start of the second half, her second the score of the game, picking up a long delivery from Shannon O’Doherty to hit the target from 40 metres.
When Áine McAlister tapped over a couple of frees during the middle ten minutes, Derry were assured of victory before Shauna Mulligan eventually opened the visitors’ second half account in the 53rd minute.
As they did in the first half, Derry finished strongly, this time with a goal when McAlister picked out Maria Rafferty with a cross-field pass and Rafferty hit the net at the second attempt in the 56th minute.
Elsewhere in the group, Wexford beat Meath 2-10 to 1-7 with goals from Ciara O’Connor (1-3) and Joanne Dillon (1-2).
In Group Two Waterford and Kilkenny were level at half-time but the home team pulled away for a 1-16 to 0-8 victory, while Tipperary outscored Westmeath by seven points to two during the second half to earn a draw.
Derry: A Shaw (1-2), M Rafferty (1-1), Á McAllister (0-3 frees), G McNicholl (0-2)
Kildare: L Sutton (0-3, 0-2 frees, 45), E Reilly (0-2), S Mulligan (0-1).
Division Three: Cavan 0-11 Armagh 0-10
THE big result in Division Three was Cavan’s narrow defeat of Armagh, the first time that the Breffni ladies have beaten Armagh in three attempts since they returned to inter-county camogie two years ago.
There was no more than a point or two between the teams through the game with the lead changing hands regularly until Niamh Keenaghan grabbed the winner in injury time.
Cavan also led at half-time, by 0-6 to 0-5 with Clodagh Keenaghan doing most of the scoring for them, while Armagh’s scores were spread more through the forward line with Corrina Doyle hitting two points.
Three points from free-taker Ellie McKee during the third quarter gave Armagh the edge once more while Ciarraí Devlin in goals kept Cavan from claiming a goal that would have taken them clear.
Clodagh Keenaghan and Hannah Fitzsimons eventually put Cavan ahead only for Ellie McKee to level as the game went to injury time. Devlin brought off another excellent stop, but Niamh Keenaghan followed through for the winner.
Elsewhere Down were well-beaten in Clare while Antrim’s game with Roscommon was called off
Division Four: Tyrone 2-8 Wicklow 2-10
IT has been a good weekend for Wicklow camogie. On Friday Coláiste Bhríde, Carnew beat Colaiste Mhuire, Ennis by 4-9 to 1-9 to take the Tesco All-Ireland schools’ title for the first time and then their county side turned over Tyrone who had beaten them convincingly last year in the league.
Corner-forward Sophie Bermingham did most of the damage with two goals and four points and she opened the scoring in Carrickmore with a point.
When Bermingham scored her first goal in the 20th minute, Wicklow had taken a lead of 1-5 and Tyrone still had to open their account. The goal awakened the home side and Róisín McErlean hit two points to get the score-board moving. The gap had narrowed to 1-5 to 0-4 at the break.
Grainne McDonald brought the gap down to two points with a ground strike to the net only for Bermingham to hit back at the other end with her second goal.
Tyrone battled away and were back in contention when McErlean goaled. But time ran out on them.
Wicklow: S Bermingham (2-4), K Tyrell (0-3), A Keddy (0-1), J Maxwell (0-1), J Tyrell (0-1).
Tyrone: R McErlean (1-5), G McDonald (1-0), M Clarke (0-2), S McCann (0-1)
RESULTS
Littlewoods Ireland National Leagues
Division One
Down 0-8 Galway 4-17
Offaly 0-2 Dublin 1-12
Clare 0-10 Kilkenny 1-8
Cork 5-17 Limerick 0-6
Division Two
Derry 2-8 Kildare 0-6
Wexford 2-10 Meath 1-7
Tipperary 1-9 Westmeath 0-12
Waterford 1-16 Kilkenny 0-8
Division Three
Carlow 0-7 Dublin 3-7
Cavan 0-11 Armagh 0-10
Division Four
Tyrone 2-8 Wicklow 2-10
