Junior Camogie Clane 1-08 Celbridge 2-03

Played on a lovely April spring evening Celbridge were unlucky not to come away with anything out of this game. Fiona Lannigan opened the scoring after 4 minutes with a fine point. Incredibly there was to be no further scoring for the next fifteen minutes, until Grainne Martin equalised with a free, when Anna Gallagher was harshly penalised for pushing. Celbridge responded instantly when Michelle O'Dwyer found space on the right side of the attack and squared a lovely long range pass to Fiona Lannigan who buried the ball in the Clane net. Celbridge had several chances in the next few minutes to extend the lead, but all that counted was a point when Fiona passed to her sister Aine whose shot was brilliant saved by the Clane keeper at the expense of a point. HT Celbridge 1-02 Clane 0-01.

Clane came out for the second half with all guns blazing. Points from Grainne Martin, Aoife Glynn, Dearbhla Martin and Grainne Martin levelled the game for Clane. Celbridge finally lifted the siege when Anna Gallagher found Aine Magee on the right and her first time ball into the Clane goal area was scrambled home by Fiona Lannigan. Clane hit back through three pointed frees by Grainne Martin before Clane scored a fortuitous goal that travelled between a lot of players and ended up in the corner of the net, the first time Clane had led in the game with five minutes to go. Celbridge tried in vain to come back, but did score another fine individual point by Anna Hepple who collected a clearance from Sarah Kelly before running twenty meters and driving the ball over the bar.

This was a great battling performance by the Celbridge girls to run the current Junior B champions so close. While everyone battled brilliantly on the day, special mention must go to our full back line of Pia Mitchell, Captain Sinead McCabe and Sarah Wallace backed up by Sarah Kelly in goal were all exceptional. Scorers: Fiona Lannigan 2-01, Aine McGee 0-01 and Anna Hepple 0-01. Team: Kelly, Mitchell, McCabe, Wallace, Connell, Percy, Naughton, Gallagher, Fitzmaurice, McGee, O'Dwyer, Hepple, Lannigan, McGoldrick, O'Dwyer, Duffy

Many thanks to Hugh Gallagher for report.