St Brigids are the Pride of Blanchardstown
- Apr 15,2013
Division Two
St Brigid's 3-3
Scoil Ui Chonnaill 1-3
Shauna Kelly's pair of booming first half goals saw St Brigid's make the best use of the strong wind coming from the clubhouse end at Lawless Memorial Park to withstand an epic Scoil Ui Chonnail fightback.
Held scoreless in the first half, Scoil looked dead and buried with nine points in the gap at the interval but Olivia Gleeson's goal breathed live into the tie and they got back to within three points.
Brigid's held their nerve, however, and a late Amy Fay goal finally saw out the tie in cracking style, finding the top left corner.
Early on, the Dublin 15 side had it mostly their own way as Kelly showed what she was capable of from distance with a huge point.
Soon after, she added a goal direct from a stunning 45 that skimmed off the underside of the crossbar on its way in. Fay and Rachel Moran added points before Kelly dropped another bomb from a free into the box and out of reach of the Scoil goalkeeper for a 2-3 to 0-0 half-time lead.
But it was all change in the second half with Ella McCloskey bounding forward while Hannah Leahy also went close before Sophie Gibney's free got her side on the board.
Gleeson's smartly taken volley from a shot which rebounded her way sharply then gave the comeback real impetus. Ciara McComish added to that momentum while Gibney's effort from the right flank brought them to within three points.
St Brigid's broke free of the shackles late in the game to finally put their name formally on the trophy with Fay's sweet goal.
St Brigid's: A Hegarty, A Hourican, A Powell, A Walsh, A Cummins, A Fay (1-1), A Fitzpatrick, A Moran, C O'Sullivan, C Cunningham, C Courtney, C McCrea, C Ryan, C Van Buren, E Quinn, S Kelly (2-1), H Barrett, K Kenny-Byrne, M McCarthy, M O'Regan, R Moran (0-1), S Waldron, A Graham, E Mulholland
Scoil Ui Chonnaill: S Keohane, K Burnett, A Cherry, K Colgan, E Condon, H Costello, S Devine, S GIbney (0-2), O Gleeson (1-0), E Heery, A Horan, L Kavanagh, C Kelly, N Kelly, H Leahy, N Lyons, E McCloskey, C McComish (0-1), A McGrath, L Meade, C Morgan, R Murphy, S O'Flynn, R Phelan