Football

Bredagh claim Ulster crown

Ulster Club Minor Ladies’ Football Championship final: Bredagh (Down) 3-17 St Ergnat’s, Moneyglass (Antrim) 2-6

BREDAGH capped an historic year for the club by clinching their first piece of provincial silverware after defeating Moneyglass in the Ulster Club Minor Championship final at The Dub yesterday.

Goals from sisters Laoise and Orla Duffy on the stroke of half-time turned the game in the Down champions’ favour. 

They had been trailing by four points, 1-5 to 0-4, but with the Antrim champions reduced to 14 players after a sin-binning, Bredagh capitalised on the numerical advantage, hitting an unanswered 2-3 before half-time to lead 2-7 to 1-5 at the interval.

They then held their opponents scoreless for a long period of the second half as Moneyglass again found themselves reduced to 14 players for a second 10-minute spell. 

The Antrim champions were unable to get any foothold in the game and Bredagh added 1-8 without reply after the resumption, co-captain Laoise Duffy with the goal. 

Moneyglass, to their credit, never gave up and scored a late 1-1 but this was Bredagh’s day as they became the sixth different winners of this competition in its six-year history.

Free-taker Eimear Rodgers finished the game with six points while the other co-captain, Ella Durkan, contributed 0-4.

An ecstatic ladies’ chairperson, Colm Murray, who is also part of the management team with Gerry Rodgers, Eamon Murphy and Peadar Doyle, was full of praise for his own players, as well as the contribution of Moneyglass.

“We are truly delighted and maybe the scoreline does not reflect the individual battles on the pitch and the fact the key moments broke for us on the day,” he said.

“Moneyglass are a very strong and talented team, we could not underestimate them. We felt the winners would be the team who could get the controlling hand on the ball. 

“We started strong but were not finishing and that was down to the Moneyglass defence.

“The sin bin before half-time allowed us to gain control of the game and from that we took confidence.

“The start to the second half was a real tussle between the teams but we were able to take control and I think that the hard work we have put in started to tell and our belief and confidence grew.

“This is a great achievement for the club. We play all four codes in Bredagh and everyone was out in support of us. There is a lot to build on for the future and we are looking forward to it.”