U13 Girls: Colemanstown vs Oughterard

U13 Girls: Colemanstown 2 – Oughterard 5.  Report by Zoe Kennedy
Colemanstown U13 girls played their second league match on Sunday morning at home to Oughterard in some pretty cold, windy conditions. Both teams started out strong but the visitors soon got the upper hand scoring 2 goals early on. Not to be defeated, Colemanstown girls stood their ground with some superb defending by the back line- Ally Nutley, Marian Higgins, Lucy Roberts and Aoife Hynes. Lucy had a truly amazing match and you could literally see the frustration on the faces of the Oughterard strikers as time and time again their superb efforts were just cleared away by that powerful right foot of hers. Lucy, you certainly made light work of those determined strikers! Well done.  Aoife Hynes’ quick thinking certainly led to her intercepting a good number of through balls, clearing them out of dangers way.

Colemanstown kept working away, passing well and driving the ball down to the strikers and were almost rewarded when Annalise crossed a fantastic ball to Anna Barrett who passed it swiftly to Eva Molloy whose efforts went close with her shot just going wide. Unlucky.

Midfielders Eva Molloy, Annalise Doran and Libby Kennedy had a superb game. The crowd were treated to some real fancy footwork there by these 3 as they weaved in and out of the visitors before driving some impressive long passes to the waiting strikers. It was really lovely to see all the practise of recent trainings on display there girls. Some super clearances by both Mollie O’Connor and Ally Nutley throughout the match were detrimental in stopping the visitors bagging any more goals. Great work you two!

The second half saw some really heroic defending by Mollie and Marian Higgins and also 2 impressive goals from our girls in green. A very well placed cross in, by Grace Mitchell found the feet of nippy striker Blaithin Keane who wasted no time in booting it straight into the net! A brilliant Goal!!! Then after an almighty attempt on goal by Shona Barrett was blocked by Oughterard’s  keeper and sent back into play it was Libby Kennedy who ran in for an impressive one touch, pounding  the ball into the top left hand corner!!! Impressive play indeed.

Colemanstown’s seasoned strikers Grace Mitchell, Edel Egan, Shona Barrett, Anna Barrett and Blaithin Keane were in top form throughout the match. I lost count of how many balls Grace and Edel crossed in to the box but Oughterard’s defenders were very good and certainly tested these strikers to the limit. And this report wouldn’t be complete without mentioning the super human efforts of Blaithin Keane. With impressive skill and determination she kept the ball tight and made numerous attempts on goal.

There was debut performances from the 3 newest squad members today; Aoife and Clodagh Jordan and Louise Kelly. And what a performance it was!! Clodagh wasn’t even been on the pitch for 5 minutes before she so nearly scored with a mighty kick. So close Clodagh!! And it wasn’t long before Aoife Jordan and Louise also got in on the act with attempts on goal from these 2 also!! Well done you three!!