Adult League Division One Ballyboden St Endas v Clontarf, Wednesday 24th May, Pairc Ui Mhúrchú After a very entertaining match at home last Wednesday night v Clontarf our senior A ladies footballers remain unbeaten in the league after 7 matches, with a break in this competition now in operation. Clontarf were expected to be strong opposition and so it proved as scores were hard to come by for both sides. Ballyboden opened the scoring through Hannah Hyland followed quickly by another point from the impressive Claire Kirwan. Indeed it was the same player who scored the opening goal of the game on 25minutes which put some daylight between the two teams. Half time score: Ballyboden St Endas 1.8 Clontarf 0.4

A 7 point lead probably flattered the home side as Clontarf looked impressive at times moving the ball quickly and creating many scoring chances mainly through the pacy half forward Tara Fitzgibbon and ex Dublin star Sarah McCaffrey. However the Boden defence particularly the half back line of Ciara Ruddy, Hannah Byrne and Jenny Walsh were not easily beaten and it meant that the Northsiders had to work extremely hard for any score they got. The home side got off to a flyer in the second period with Claire Kirwan slotted over a point followed 2 minutes later by a wonderful solo goal as she left the Clontarf defence in her slipstream rifling the ball to the roof of the net to in effect finishing the game as a contest. With an 11 point lead, it was a matter then of seeing the game out and that’s exactly what Boden did with the Hyland sisters, Hannah and Natalia, as well as Kirwan and Kate Donaghy keeping the scoreboard ticking over. Clontarf never gave up however and with a goal scored from a dubious penalty call and some pointed frees, they kept the game interesting even though they were eventually beaten by double scores.

Final score: Ballyboden St Endas 3.13 (22) Clontarf 1.8 (11) Scorers: Claire Kirwan 2.3, Natalia Hyland 1.5, Hannah Hyland 0.3 and Kate Donaghy 0.2pts.

Many thanks to Cliona Mellett for the photos. For more, see here