Littlewoods Ireland League Division Two: Antrim 0-12 Meath 1-8
WHAT a finish we had to this game in Inniskeen.
Seconds into injury time Meath substitute Claire Coffey challenged a high delivery on the Antrim goalline. It could have fallen in for a goal, but Coffey and Meath were delighted with the point.
That score put them ahead in the game for the first time and Antrim had only scored three times since Nicole O’Neill’s free four minutes from the break had put them into a 0-7 to 0-1 lead.
All the momentum was with the Royals and they now had the lead with the game in added time. Over the next two minutes Antrim hit a wide and Maeve Kelly picked up a yellow card. Time seemed to be running out on the Saffrons. But they battled hard and got two breaks inside the last 30 seconds to snatch victory at the death.
Firstly Laoise McKenna played the sliotar down the left wing where Róisín McCormick broke clear and turned to hook over an equaliser. From the puckout Nicole O’Neill played the diagonal ball for Caitrín Dobbin to fire over the winner from an acute angle.
It wasn’t a convincing performance from Antrim, but it was enough for them to reach their first final in a decade. That said, they dominated the opening 25 minutes playing into the breeze and could have been a lot further ahead on the scoreboard.
During that period there were two points each for Dobbin, Maeve Kelly and Anna Connolly and the Meath defence was under a lot of pressure while the Antrim back-line totally dominated conceding just one point, and that from a free.
Then came a fairly soft penalty award that Jane Dolan struck low to the corner in first half injury time and Meath were just three behind at the break and rejuvenated.
All the scores in the third quarter came from frees with Dolan narrowing the gap to 0-9 to 1-4 at the second water break and it was the 48th minute before Grace Coleman reached high to fire over Meath’s first score from open play.
Amy Gaffney drew the sides level before Lucia McNaughton and Sinéad Hackett exchanged points to set up the added time drama.
Joint-manager Paul McKillen praised the team’s resilience at the end heaping praise on his defence.
“An unbelievable finish. The commitment, the effort, they never gave up.
“Caitriona (Graham) made an outstanding catch. It rallied us. The defence played so well and you have to factor in that we were missing a couple of our more experienced defenders.
“Caitrín worked hard during the whole of the second half and couldn’t get a break. She never gave up and the break she got won the match. I am over the moon.”
Antrim: C Graham, K McKillop, C Conlon, M Lynn, C Patterson, N Donnelly, L McKenna, L McNaughton (0-1), A Boyle, M Kelly 0-2, A Connolly (0-2), N O'Neill (0-3 frees), R McCormick (0-1), Ciara Laverty, C Dobbin (0-3).
Subs: C McKillop for C Patterson (50), Christine Laverty for Ciara Laverty (53)
Meath: M Randle; S Healy, E Burke, L Donohue, T King, M Clince, L Devine; K Troy, Á Slattery; G Coleman (0-1), A Minogue, A Gaffney (0-1); N Doyle, J Dolan (1-4, 1-0 pen, 0-4 frees), S Hackett (0-1).
Subs used: M Kirby for N Doyle (38), M Thynne for S Healy (38), C Coffey 0-1 for G Cleman (54).
Referee: Alan Doheny (Laois)
