Roscommon
& District Under 16 League Final
Ballinasloe
Vs Cam Celtic
16th
October 2004
The Curragh Grounds
in Ballinasloe was the scene for this very entertaining game. The pitch was in
perfect condition and it is a great pity that the glorious autumn sunshine did not attract a bigger crowd. The two teams were evenly matched having met twice before in the league, resulting in a draw and a narrow
win for Ballinasloe.
The early exchanges
were close with both sides launching some very good attacks. With 20 minutes
gone, Sarah Kiely broke the deadlock when she moved forward from midfield and in her customary cool manner stroked home a
poor clearance. The Ballinasloe backline of Lorraine Canavan, Siobhan Campbell,
Mirran Mannion and Catriona Cormican with Mairead Cleary in goal were in such good form that the would surely have held out
the Man. Utd. forward line.
10 minutes into
the second half, Rachelle O’Brien, who had been pushing forward all through the game scored the goal that put Ballinasloe
on their way to victory. From then on “The Town” seemed to gain confidence. A few minutes later O’Brien who was now dominating midfield scored her second
goal. Cam Celtic refused to bend and launched a few great attacks of their own,
but failed to get passed Mairead Cleary. The Ballinasloe midfield of Caith Cleary,
Sarah Kiely, Rachelle O’Brien and Aishling Kelly really come on top towards the end of the game. Up front Kaylie Koentop and Darina Flynn laid on some great crosses.
With about 10 minutes to go Aishling Kelly drove a great ball to the net and Kaylie Koentop finished the scoring with
a great goal 5 minutes from the end to leave the winning score of Ballinasloe 5 Cam Celtic 0. The subs who were used for Ballinasloe
were Yvonne Naughton and Aoife Kenny.
There were some great individual performances
from Ballinasloe, but it would be unfair to pick a play of the match as Ballinasloe had 11 of them. Congratulation to all the girls and manager Jim Doherty.
