The Mayo U13 Girls in Gaynor Cup Opener
- Oct 03,2021
The Mayo U13 Girls were in Ballisodare to face Sligo-Leitrim in their opening Gaynor Cup match Sunday evening. Playing with the considerable breeze in the 1st half the Mayo girls found it hard to gauge their forward passes and Kate Byrne executed the first of many timely interventions from left back in the 4th minute. On the opposite flank we had Kayleigh Coggins making a very steady debut at this level. On 12 minutes the first of a number of excellent Amy Murphy corners caused a lot of trouble in the home defence before being scrambled away.
The home side have two really pacy tricky forwards but our centre-back pairing of Aine Monaghan and Aoife Collins were their match physically and behind them the impressive Aoife Meaney was calmness peronified. We lost the ball from a throw of ours up the right and a quick counter-attack later saw the home team go ahead with 22 minutes on the clock. Roise Burke was getting on a lot of ball in central midfield and both of our wide players Emma Dowling and Aoibhin Mc Garry were giving us good width and winning a number of corners. Another Murphy corner on the stroke of half-time saw Aine do really well at the near post and the ever alert Kasey fired home at the back post.
Half-Time.
Sligo-Leitrim 1
Mayo 1.
The 2nd half was again a really tight affair between two very evenly matched teams. Aoife in our goal demonstrated her ability dealing with crosses brilliantly and her distribution was again first class. Ursula was just off-target from another fantastic Murphy corner and we now had Cliodhna Dowling hunting down the home defence's every move and she was aided and abetted by Ella Mc Loughlin and Sarah Jane Kilcawley - the appetite for work from our forwards was a feature of the 2nd half.
On 49 minutes Aine Monaghan somehow cleared the ball off our goal-line - colliding with the post as she did so and a combination of the 2 Aoifes kept the rebound out. Cara Culkin, Amy Doherty and the spirited Siofra Mc Guinness all made huge contributions in the 2nd half as the Mayo girls very much dominated the ball without creating the clear-cut chances that more games will certainly bring on.
Full Time.
Sligo-Leitrim 1
Mayo 1.
Gaynor Cup rules this year dictate that drawn group matches have to go to penalties in case that teams cannot be separated by other means at the group conclusion. Here again the girls were not found wanting winning the penalty shoot out 4-2. Ella Mc Loughlin, Ursula Shaugnessy, Roise Burke and Amy Murphy all displayed nerves of steel to find the back of the net while Aoife Meaney made a stunning save.
For our first game out management were really happy with how the girls performed and how they grew into the game. A point gained away to a good side and the penalties were a real bonus - a live match day scenario to take them in. We look forward to our next assignment which is a long away trek to the beautiful Inishowen in two weeks time.
This is very much a squad effort and while the following girls did not see any action today their time will come in future games - Melissa Clarke, Niamh Gillespie, Brooke Grimes, Alana Kelly and Sadhbh O Donnell
