U14s IMPRESS

We traveled this morning to Ballinhassig for our 3rd round match. It being a full four weeks since our last championship game the girls were excited and eager to get stuck in. With a few of the panel not available to us we travelled with the bare 15 but everyone of them were well prepared for the encounter. The game began with both teams being evenly matched. Ballinhassig opened the scoring after 5 minutes with a well taken point. This was equalled when Lucy opened our account a minute later. Scores were traded by both sides and after 20 minutes we led 02-03 to 02-01. Our girls really stepped it up in the final 10 minutes of the half an registered another 7 scores to no reply to leave us with a comfortable lead going in at half time.

Drawing on past experiences where we had been ourselves in the same situation as our opposition trailing at half time and turning thing around in the second half we knew we had to sustain the work rate if we were to secure our place in the next round. With that in mind the only change made was a direct swap when Meadhbh took up the position of center forward and Leah replaced her between the posts.

The second half began as the first with Ballinhassig taking the opening score when they raised the green flag just as the first minute had elapsed. Again our midfielders and forwards did their job and added to our tally. As the game continued our girls grew in confidence and began to really stamp their authority on the contest. Although our defence were regularly tested they stood their ground and neutralised a lot of the opposition's attacks. We did conceded more scores but in the end we did enough to guarantee our place in the quarter final stage of the championship. A thoroughly complete team performance where every one of the 15 girls played their part in the victory. We await the draw to see who we face in next round.