Davitt college denied in eightgoal thriller

Pearse Park in Longford has been the burial ground for the dreams of many a Mayo team - seniors, Under 21s and minors meeting their Waterloo at the midlands venue in recent years in particular.

Another team has been added to that growing list of shattered dreams as Davitt College suffered a harrowing defeat in a thrilling senior girls All-Ireland final, succumbing eventually, but not without a heroic battle, to the girls from Killcullen, Co. Kildare.

This was a particularly tough one for the Castlebar school to lose as the boys had failed in five previous attempts, and there was a genuine belief that this particular girls team could deliver where the boys had failed.

And they almost did. Three points separated the sides in the end but hidden behind the result is a story of a team that fought the good fight but were edged out by a side that was just slightly stronger in terms of physical presence.

It may be of some consolation to Davitt College to know they emptied the tank in this final and gave it all they had to give.

There were the hard luck stories of missed opportunities, but both sides were culpable in this regard, while a first-half sin-binning of one of Davitt College’s most influential players certainly impacted on a game which took off at full throttle, the high tempo maintained up to half-time before it slowed down in the second half and picked up for the final 10 minutes as Davitt College went in search of a winning goal which looked like coming but never arrived.

But goals did come and when they came they tended to come in pairs, and we had eight in all in the fist half, four from each side as the Kildare girls edged it 4-6 to 4-5 at the break.

The game was barely two minutes old when both sides had found the net, Kayleigh Humphries, who was to nail a hat trick on the day, firing home inside a minute with her side’s first attack. But Laura Burke replied for Davitt College as her 30-yard free was dropped by a defender and ended up in the net.

The momentum was beginning to swing towards the Mayo girls as Erina Flannery played a true captain’s part in setting up so many attacks and they hit 1-2, the points coming from Claire McDonagh and Amy Dowling, while their scored goal was driven low to the net by Aine O’Reilly on eight minutes.

However, if you looked away from this game for a moment you were likely to miss a goal and the Kildare girls had their second from their full-forward, Humphries, who was put through by midfielder Ellie O’Toole to make it 2-2 to 2-0 in favour of the Connaught champions.

Danielle Caldwell came in with a terrific point but the superb Ellen Dowling responded with an equally good score for the Kildare school, Laura Burke scoring her side’s fourth point.

Melissa Patterson was shown yellow for a foot block and probably saved a certain goal, but the resultant penalty was buried by Humphries on 17 minutes. Three minutes later they had a fourth, Humphries getting her hat trick, and suddenly Davitt College looked to be taking water as they trailed 4-3 to 2-4.

But the battling qualities of these girls soon manifested itself before the interval as they came back with two stunning goals to level the game at 4-5 apiece just before the break.

Goal number three came from Laura Brody, who was found by Flannery, and the finish was sublime, but the goal of the game came from Amy Dowling, who meandered through at least six Kildare players before finding her angle to drill her shot low into the bottom corner. It was a stunning finish and couldn’t have been more timely than the 26th minute, a late point from Dowling giving Kilcullen that one-point edge at the break and, more importantly, Davitt College now back to 15 players.

It was always going to be hard to maintain the kind of pace we saw in the first half given the warm conditions and although the goals dried up, the excitement and drama didn’t as both sides gave it their all. Putting an extra player in defence certainly closed down a lot of the scoing options for the Kildare girls, who were so strong down the spine of the team.

Laura Brody had Davitt College on level terms inside a minute of the restart but the next four scores went to Cross and Passion and they crashed one off the crossbar as Dowling, Ciara Wheeler and Ellen O’Toole began to make their physical presence count.

There were still 10 minutes for Davitt College to retrieve the situation and they tried their damdest, and might have had a goal or two of their own. They certainly had chances of points but weary legs were beginning to take their toll and although they did clip back a point from Laura Brody, it was back up to five again when the Kildare girls hit two on the bounce and pulling back five with time ticking down was never on without a goal.

The best team won in the end but this was a performance Davitt College can justifiably be proud of.