A very busy week on the ladies football scene in Wexford had a mixture of results for the county junior side and various schools teams.
On Sunday afternoon Bannow Ballymitty’s pitch of Grantstown was the venue for the opening round of the Tesco Homegrown National Football Division 3 campaign and Tipperary came and took the points on offer with their greater experience proving key to their success. Wexford lining out with six debutants on their side were in experimental mode and they fell 1-3 to 0-1 behind inside 15 minutes with a goal for the Premier County coming from the boot of Lorraine O’Shea.
Fiona Bennett on her first appearance in the purple and gold found the net after an impressive team move to cut the gap to a point, however before the interval Tipperary hit three points without reply and marched to the dressing room 1-7 to 1-2 in front. Wexford played very well in the opening fifteen minutes of the second half with points from Julie Coakley, Maria Byrne and Katie Redmond but were unable to get any closer than three points to their opponents.
A penalty goal from Bernie Ryan eventually put this game to bed, as Katie Sludds was harshly sent to the line with a straight red card on her debut after bringing down Mairead Morrissey as she was en route to goal. Three points from free by Chantelle Martins before the end left the final score 2-12 to 1-9 in favour of Tipperary, but Wexford’s management team have to be pleased with the showings of their new players who certainly stepped up to the challenge and vital experience gained now will be hugely beneficial later in the league campaign.
Next weekend the Model County host near neighbours Waterford in a South East derby with Grantstown the likely venue depending on weather conditions during the coming week.
WEXFORD: Katie Sludds; Roisin Fitzgerald, Marguerite Doyle, Ciara Corrigan; Sharon Kehoe, Catriona McCabe, Ciara Neville; Clara Donnelly, Maria Byrne (0-1); Niamh Moore (0-1), Fiona Rochford, Julie Coakley (0-1); Siobhan Cloake, Fiona Bennett (1-0), Katie Redmond (0-3, 1 free). Subs: Chantelle Martin (0-3 frees) for Cloake, Aoife Waters for Fitzgerald, Roisin Murphy for Corrigan, Kellie Kearney for Moore, Natalie Cushe for Coakley, Áine Leacy for Redmond, Mary Hempenstall for Bennett, Rosie Lawlor for McCabe.
The Wexford Ladies Football team collected their August Sport Star of the Month Award in the Mount Wolsley Hotel on Saturday night at the Beat 102-103 Sport Star of the year awards night. In a wonderful night that celebrated the successes of South East Sport in 2013 Wexford ladies football were among national and international stars in the running for Sports Stars of the year. The overall winner of Sport Star of the year was Waterford girl Niamh Briggs who was named World rugby player of the year and was a member of the Irish Women’s Grand Slam rugby winning team.
St Mary’s Secondary School New Ross lost out in the final of the Leinster Post Primary Senior B Championship as they came up against a very strong Scoil Criost RI from Portlaoise last week. It was a fantastic achievement to get to the Leinster final but it proved one step too far as last year’s C champions Scoil Criost Ri continued their rise in Ladies football.
FCJ Bunclody also suffered defeat as they lost out in the final of the Leinster Post Primary Senior C Championship as they found St Michaels Loreto from Navan too hot to handle in their final on Friday afternoon last.
There was good news however for the girls of Gorey Community School as they advanced to the Leinster Post Primary Schools Senior D final with a fine win over Scoil Dara from Kilcock and they will find out their Leinster final details in the coming days.
