TG4 All-Ireland Ladies’ IFC round one
Group 2
Monaghan 1-13 Clare 6-6
CLARE’S Fidelma Marrinan destroyed Monaghan in Clones yesterday, scoring four goals in the Banner victory.
Her first came in the 15th minute after Monaghan had gone ahead for the first time, 0-3 to 0-2, despite not having the lion’s share of possession.
She added her second in the 25th minute, combining with Chloe Moloney and firing past Orna Kelly to make it 2-2 to 0-4.
Ailish Considine, who was a late replacement in the starting line-up, got Clare’s third goal just before the break to give the Banner a 3-2 to 0-4 half-time lead. Monaghan’s first half points came from two Leanne McBride frees, Chloe McBride and Amy Garland.
Monaghan needed a fast start to the second half and they got that, scoring for the first time since the 21st minute when Eabha Sherry got them off the mark inside the first minute. They went on to hit four of the next five points to bring them back to within three points, 3-3 to 0-9, Garland with a brace and Sarah Tierney and Sherry all finding the target.
However, Marrinan then completed her hat-trick when she latched on to a pass from her captain Caoimhe Harley to push the gap back out to six. Orla Devitt added another point to give them a 4-4 to 0-9 lead with a quarter of the game remaining.
Monaghan struck back almost immediately, Sherry finding herself in the right place to blast the ball to the back of the net after Amy Lenihan could only palm away Kerry Nolan’s shot. Tierney added a point and Monaghan were within a kick of the ball of Clare, 5-4 to 1-10.
The killer blow for the home side came in the 54th minute when Marrinan collected the ball just outside Monaghan’s 45 and headed straight for goal. No white jerseys were able to stop her before she lobbed the ball over Kelly’s head and into the back of the net to seal the win. Sinead Considine added a sixth for the visitors in injury time.
Group 1
Cavan 0-9 Down 1-13
ULSTER champions Down got their campaign off to a winning start with victory over Cavan in Redhills.
It was the second championship victory for the Mourne county over Cavan, having beaten them in the preliminary round of the UIster competition.
The visitors led from start to finish, building up a 0-9 to 0-3 half-time lead. Niamh King hit four first-half points, including two from frees, while Niamh Scullion, Viv McCormack, Laoise Duffy and captain Meghan Doherty also got on the scoresheet. Sinead Levingstone with a point either side of one from Ally Cahill were Cavan’s scorers.
A Levingstone free opened the scoring on the resumption but Down reeled off points from Duffy (two) and King to put eight between them, 0-12 to 0-4, with nine minutes of the second half gone.
Cavan hit a purple patch with three unanswered of their own, Cahill and two from substitute Niamh McCorry bringing their tally to seven points.
Duffy got Down’s first score since the 39th minute but they never looked in trouble as Caoibhe Sloan and Peter Lynch rang the changes.
Sarah McCabe rounded off Cavan’s scoring with two points either side of King finding the back of the net for Down to wrap up the win for the provincial champions.
Group 4
Leitrim 4-12 Tyrone 5-8
TYRONE saw a nine-point lead overturned by Leitrim to lose by a point in a nine-goal thriller in Ballinamore.
The Red Hands opened the scoring by finding the back of the net and at half-time they led 3-4 to 1-6. That lead became 5-5 to 1-8 but 2-2 unanswered from Leitrim had them back to within one.
Tyrone stopped the bleed with a point but a fourth goal for Leitrim gave them the lead by one and they added another point. Tyrone levelled with two in-a-row before Leitrim snatched the win with a late point.
