Ladies Championship

Saturday 02.09.2023

Club

Moortown won their first ever Senior Championship match following an entertaining encounter with Cookstown on Friday evening under lights in Stewartstown. They now progress to play Errigal Ciaran in the QF next Saturday.

In a lively opening minute Tyrone number 1 Sinead McVey needed to make a point blank save to prevent a Cookstown goal, but she could do nothing to stop Lucy McNeill putting them into the lead fifteen seconds later. Moortown got off the mark after three minutes with a nice point from wing forward Quinn. Moortown were growing into the match and in a move involving Tallon and Quinn, the ball was worked to corner forward Donica Ryan who finished clinically to the Cookstown net. Two further points from play by Quinn soon followed, the second after midfielder Wilson turned the ball over and fed a great pass to Quinn.

Cookstown weren’t going to lie down and replied with two scores of their own from play, the second from Lauren Rushe was a fine effort off her right foot. Moortown’s Emma Wilson then had a goalbound shot blocked in a what seemed a vital moment. However, a Tallon pass found Ryan for a nice score before the impressive Conlon added another for the Loughshore ladies in the 28th minute. Nicole Conway landed a monster free for Moortown shortly after before a free from Sheehy left the HT score 1-6 to 0-4 in favour of Moortown.

Cookstown started the second half strongly and two more frees from Amy Sheehy soon had the lead down to three. A brilliant long kickout by Moortown’s McVey found Rachel Tallon who ran at the Cookstown defence before the ball was worked to Conway, who was fouled and the referee rightly awarded a penalty which was scored by Murphy. A nice pass by Tallon found Murphy who pointed from play a minute later to give Moortown daylight. Amy McGlone replied for Cookstown but a Moortown move involving Quinn and Tallon, resulted in Conway’s shot being blocked by a Cookstown foot and a second penalty was the result. This was duly dispatched by Murphy for her second goal in the 23rd minute. In the 30th minute Quinn added a fourth goal after great work by Sinead Conlon and Eimear Quinn. Cookstown had the final say with a penalty of their own, well scored by Jenny Harley to leave the final score Moortown 4-7 Cookstown 1-7

Clonoe Senior Ladies made the short journey to Stewartstown on Friday evening for their preliminary round game against Edendork. In what was a very tight game, it was Clonoe who booked their place in the next round of the Championship, winning by the slimmest of margins.

Sinéad Hanna opened the game with a well taken point before Orlagh Gavin stretched the Clonoe lead to three as Clonoe aimed to stamp their mark on the game. Edendork responded by raising the green flag to bring the game level before adding another two points. Both teams were fighting for every ball with Cara Coyle, Aoife Coyle and Áine Heagney working hard to break down Edendork attacks in defence. In front of goals, the Clonoe girls tried to create many scoring opportunities with Orlagh Gavin exchanging two points with Edendork.

Half time score:
Clonoe 0-06, Edendork 1-04

Clonoe began the second half with an Orlagh Gavin point to bring the teams level.
With the outstanding Lucy McKeown and Ciara Hughes who both made their Senior Championship debuts, the Clonoe girls continue to work hard for every ball. As the game entered injury time, the teams were level for the third time in the second half. With a pressure free in the top corner, Orlagh Gavin slotted over what was a crucial score to see the girls through to the next round of the Championship at the Final whistle.

Final Score: Clonoe 0-11, Edendork 1-07

Clonoe Scorers
Orlagh Gavin 0-10
Sinéad Hanna 0-01

Clonoe Team
L McKee, A Heagney, C Coyle, O Donnelly, A Coyle, M MacOscar, L McKeown, E Cushnahan, S Hanna, A Hughes, N O’Hagan, C Hughes, O O’Hagan, B Quinn, O Gavin

Subs: C Fitzgerald for M MacOscar