How a few weeks changes everything!
After all the promise that our U14 Ladies showed in the run-up to the Championship Final, they were unable to deliver anything against a St Paul’s last night who were on full-on ‘win mode,’ the West Belfast club running out deserved 7-9 to 2-5 winners.
From the opening whistle, the St Paul’s front line were at our defence with quick delivery and potent finishing, and with little to offer from our flat midfield or complacent offensive line, our girls found themselves 11 points adrift at half time, having wasted the majority of the few scoring chances they created.
The second half started with three well taken single points from Maeve Blaney but in response, Captain Caiomhe McNeice took her side straight downfield and delivered a sucker punch goal that knocked the heart out of the St Brigid’s girls. Time and again we found ourselves second to every ball and unable to break down the strong St Paul’s defence, marshalled ably by Emer Enright who fed her midfield and forward line with devastating accuracy.
So often, finals are won by the team who shows the hunger and unfortunately last night, there was only one team who wanted to dine! Apart from a few energy sapping runs from Eimear Matthews and Caitlin Fryers, that ended in the brick wall of St Paul’s defenders, there was little to commend ourselves on in respect of the performance.
Perhaps it was the two long, hard games that we had to come through to get to this final, or maybe the team is already thinking about the forthcoming Feile, but whatever was the cause of this resounding defeat, the team need to pick themselves up for St Paul’s league visit to Musgrave next Tuesday if they are to salvage something else from the season.
Nothing should be taken away from St Paul’s who simply out ran, out jumped, out kicked and out played us in every area of the park! Congratulations to them for a superb win.
Maybe it was the lesson we needed and I am sure that Monday’s training session should prove interesting for the coaches?
