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St. Ciaran’s Girls Hoping For Ulster Glory

Friday 03.02.2017
Team Talk Mag
Ladies Football


McKeever Ulster Ladies PPS Under 20 A Final

Saturday 2pm Emyvale

St Ciarans Ballygawley V Our Ladies Castleblaney

Two very experienced sides will lock horns at Emyvale on Saturday and the destination of the Ulster A title could well come down to a straight shoot out between the  two exceptionally talented attacking units in the schools game in Ulster.

St Ciaran’s eased to a 5-7 to 2-9 win over last years champions Loreto Cavan a fortnight ago with Chloe McCaffrey and Maria Canavan to the fore with the scores although this win was very much down to two key factors, a blistering start and super defending as Cavan rallied. Shannon Stevenson and Meabh Corrigan have both been outstanding at the back throughout this campaign.

Their opponents this weekend, Our Lady’s come into the decider on the back of a massive win over Loreto Omagh. It’s hard to judge though just how much this was down to the fact that the Omagh side was missing five regular starters at Clones or if the Monaghan side were just so good. Loreto were very much in the game until early in the second half when a flurry of quick fire goals ended their challenge.

This is a very experienced Blaney team with ten of the players involved this having played in last year’s all Ireland B semi-final, a game that manager Tony Graham said they left behind. “We went so close last year. We won Ulster and missed out  in the all Ireland semi-final after extra time by  just a single point. It has made us hungry this year and the experience has been good for us.” That view evidenced throughout this year’s Ulster campaign.

Jenny Duffy, Jayne Drury, Saiorse Duffy, Sorcha McCague and their target woman Erin Hamill who bagged 4-2 against Omagh afford the Monaghan school a solid back bone although perhaps they had a freer run in the semi-final than even they expected. It’s unlikely however that Corrigan, Stevenson and Cliodha Donaghey will afford them the room they enjoyed at Clones this time around.

The finalists have met twice already this season. The group game saw a Blaney win by a point at Dunmoyle while in a play-off at Armagh it was St Ciaran’s by the minimum so really there has been nothing between them this season.

Boasting five college all stars themselves St Ciaran’s might be considered by some to be slight favourites. They are managed by the Tyrone senior captain Neamh Woods and former county star Selina Oguz who have worked hard in preparing the girls. Woods, however, is taking nothing for granted. “ We came through the semi-final well. We got off to a good start with those early goals but allowed Loreto back into the game. We can’t allow that to happen in the final. We know all about them by now after two meetings this year already. It’s going to be very tough.”

Saturday’s game then brings together the two big guns in Ulster schools football at the moment. There is no shortage of experience and quality all over the park with potential match winners at every turn. Expect a close encounter at the Monaghan venue.

The premier final will be preceded by the Ulster under 16 A final between Loreto Cavan and Knock with that game throwing in at 12 noon.

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