Westmeath Ladies Adult League Division 3: Mullingar Shamrocks 2-9 Caulry 4-11.

Mullingar Shamrocks Ladies, fresh from their recent success at the Paidí O Se tournament had their first league outing of the season on Saturday in Caulry.

The game was played in fine sunshine with Caulry converting more of their early scoring chances to go into an early lead, 1:3 to 0:1 at the first water break with Shamrocks only score a point from a free by Emma Morris. Despite playing against the wind, the Mullingar girls came right back into the game when a clever pass from Michaela O Connor was delivered to corner forward Leah Glynn who made no mistake in slotting the ball into the net. Caulry continued to attack, but strong defending and goal keeping limited their scoring opportunities to 2 further points. Following a well worked move, Emma Morris scored Shamrocks second goal. The half ended following an exchange of points, with Casey McDermott scoring for Shamrocks, giving a half time score of 2:2 to Shamrocks and 1:6 to the home side.

The second half started well for Shamrocks when Sophie Hegarty’s fine block prevented a certain goal. Unfortunately, Caulry were not to be denied and 3 minutes later scored a goal to put the home side 4 points ahead. Long range points from Emma Morris and two from Jasmine Haugh maintained pressure on Caulry, however they finished this quarter the stronger, scoring a further 2:2 before the second waterbreak.

The final 10 minutes were always going to be difficult, but the Shamrocks players did not give up and maintained the pressure, unfortunately despite points from Casey McDermott, Cliodhna Spellman and two more from Emma Morris, Shamrocks could not turn around the deficit, with a final score of Caulry 4:11 to Shamrocks 2:9.

There were lots of positives to take from the game however, with a number of younger players getting valuable match experience at this level and all sure to benefit from playing a competitive game. Special mention to Phoebe Cadwallader, Tamara Molloy, Mia Gilligan and Caoimhe Gaffney who all made their debuts at this level for Mullingar Shamrocks today.

Mulllingar Shamrocks: : Katie Kelly, Sophie Hegarty, Liveta Lavrauskaite, Eve Hynes, Shona McNicholas, Cliodhna Spellman (0:1), Jenna Kelly, Mairead Newman, Caoimhe Gaffney, Casey McDermott (0:2), Michaela O Connor, Jasmine Haugh (0:2), Mia Gilligan (Phoebe Cadwallader) Emma Morris (1:4(1F)), Leah Glynn (1:0) (Tamara Molloy)