Boden Senior D vs Erin’s Isle Cherryfield – Monday 8 July

With the Senior D ladies championship slated to commence in early July, there were obvious concerns about the ability to field a team, given J1’s, holidays and general summer travelling.  Thankfully for our first group game, this wasn’t the case, as 19 Senior D adult players assembled in Cherryfield. This is in contrast to last year, when the team would have struggled to field were it not for the support of the minors girls.

Thanks to new joiners, returnees and last years 2005 minors joining adult ranks this year, we now have a strong panel with a great team spirit

Monday night in Cherryfield started with the visitors warming up on what has become the traditional Boden side of the pitch – reminiscent of Mayo v Dublin in 06 perhaps?!!

Wise words from Ciaran McCarthy seemed to have the right effect – he told our girls to ignore such sacrilege, and to concentrate on their warmup and game

Having lost to Erin’s Isles by a large margin in a league game a few weeks earlier, we were understandably concerned it might be a repeat, but right from the start our team went at it with our midfield duo of Ava Gray and Lily Burden setting the pace. With plenty of quality ball going in to our forwards, it didn’t take long for us to get on the score sheet. The half forward line of Dearbhla McCarthy, Ellie McAree and Rachel Plunkett further supplied our full forwards Amber Kieran, Hannah Bury Chloe O Loughlin with plenty of ball. The forward line was further strengthened with Emily Byrne coming on late in the first half to get a goal with one of her first touches.

Dearbhla McCarthy on her return from injury scored a cracker of a goal giving us a 3 point lead at half time. It could have been more but for the skill and heroics of the superb Finglas goal keeper.

The message at half time was simple and consistent with the narrative all year – keep tracking the players running through and go for the points.

In the second half, our fortress half back line of Hannah Sommers, Caoimhe McCarthy and Roisin O’Sullivan kept opposition scoring opportunities to a minimum. Whatever did get through was successfully hampered by the last line of defence in Ali O’Reilly, Shauna Donnelly and Lauren McDermott Smith. Our defensive strength was further bolstered by the introduction of Laura McGrath and Grace Regan, who’s fresh legs helped keep the pressure off our keeper Aoife OToole. Aoife made some great saves and was quick to get the ball out of the danger zone

The addition of Cara Ryan into the half forward line meant we kept the scores ticking over.

Despite enjoying plenty of possession and scoring opportunities it was a nip and tuck game and the full time whistle was a greeted with a big cheer from the home crowd and players!

Final score
Boden 2.11 to Isles 4.3
Team
Amber Kieran,Lauren McDermott Smith, Ali O’Reilly, Ava Gray, Aoife OToole, Laura McGrath, Caoimhe McCarthy, Dearbhla McCarthy, Lily Burden, Emily Byrne, Rachel Plunkett, Hannah Somers, Róisín O’Sullivan, Shauna Donnelly, Chloe O’Loughlin, Ellie McAree, Hannah Bury, Grace Regan, Cara Ryan