Minor A Ladies Football
Opening Round of Division One Championship.
Ballyboden St Enda’s v Lucan Sarsfields
It was a great start to the 2020 Minor A Championship for the Boden ladies footballers on Monday at a resplendent Páirc Uí Mhurchú. 24 girls gathered an hour before the match and unfortunately the first task for the mentors was to inform 3 of them that they would see no match time because only 5 substitutions are allowed in the Championship squad. Ellen Smith was also present, recuperating from a broken finger.
The Boden ladies started well with a point from Clodagh McCahey who produced a superb performance with 2-4 from play. Lucan struck back with a quick fire 1-2 and coming up to half time they had built up a lead of 1-6 to 0-5 before the Boden ladies kicked 3 points in a row to leave the minimum between the sides at the short whistle. Most of our scores came from the superb Julie Vaughan at full forward who finished with 2-7 from play as well as 2 points from frees overall. Our inspirational Captain Lucy O’Shea also contributed a point from midfield during the half.
The nip and tuck nature of the contest continued at the start of the second half as Boden forged ahead kicking 2 points before Lucan responded with 3 points. It was at this point that the Boden ladies took a real grip on the game and the strong running of Katie McDonald, Erin Christie, Shauna Finlay and Katie McCabe yielded 1-5 without reply. Katie McDonald, who had played midfield for the senior camogie team in the county semifinal the previous day, kicked a couple of points and the trusty left foot of Grace O’Neill added another quality point during this period. 
The defence, lead by the strong central spine of goalie Romy Wardick, full back Katie Quinlivan and centre back Katie McCabe were fully on top of their opponents while Sophie Weldon and Abby O’Farrell in the corners and Kiara Cunningham and Shauna on the wings managed to supply our midfield and forwards with quality ball to work with. 
Sarah O’Connell, acting as sweeper and link between backs and forwards was covering every inch of the pitch. The work rate of Anna O’Shea was superb resulting in her appearance on her own full back line at several stages during the match.
Fresh legs were introduced in the form of Emma Daly, Aoife Mellett, Rebecca Keane, Ella Browne and Lilly O Connor who all contributed to a great performance and were involved in Bodens final 2 scores, fittingly goals by Julie and Clodagh to wrap up a win by 4-15 to 1-14.
This win was a fitting reward for the commitment and effort of the panel of 27 girls during the season so far. 
Thanks to Ann O Connor, our FLO, Phelim McCabe and Conor Daly who acted as umpires, Cliona and Miriam for the photos and get well soon to Lilly O Connor and Ellen Smith in their recuperation from injury.

Back: Abby O Farrell, Katie Quinlivan, Ciara Doyle, Hollie Bolger, Sarah O’Connell, Lucy O Shea, Grace O’Neill, Katie McCabe, Romy Wardick, Rebecca Keane, Ellen Smith, Shauna Finlay, Clodagh McCahey.
Front: Ella Browne, Sophie Weldon, Emma Daly, Aoife Mellett, Mia Smyth, Julie Vaughan, Anna O’Shea, Erin Christie, Kiara Cunningham, Katie McDonald, Lilly O’Connor.

Mentors: Mark Mellett, Conor Daly, Dave Quinlivan, Brian Weldon, Declan O’Reilly, Danny O’Connell.