Éire Óg Greystones
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Weekly Notes - 24th August 2005

On Sunday the ladies returned to action in Roundwood after an aesteration (summer version of hibernation!) extending back to their championship game v Donard, a best forgotten memory. Ah, but there’s the rub, for how does one forget when every game in the Shield reminds us of that unhappy evening? The game was a semi-final of the Shield and our opponents were relative newcomers, Knockananna. The Éire Óg display in the 1st half bore all the hallmarks of a team slowly awakening from a state of suspended animation to "stark reality". On the other hand, Knockananna had a number of games in the period of Éire Óg idleness and were "up for it" in the way only Knockananna can be! For the first 30 minutes our ladies just about hung in there and seemed to be greatly discommoded by the vigorous play and the apparent superior fitness of the opposition. We feared for the outcome. The interval exhortations obviously had their effect as the team’s performance in the 2nd moiety had much more of steel and purpose. Éire Óg’s superior overall skill and experience just shaded the result in their favour. The relief in the Éire Óg camp at the sound of the final whistle was palpable.

Jade Coffey played consistently well over the hour and was instrumental in the breakdown of many Knockananna attacks. Niamh Sherlock’s faute de mieux move to goals was serendipitous – she brought off two vital saves. The rumour is that Laura Mitchell is getting a zero hair-cut – she discovered that ponytail pulling in ladies football is equivalent to jersey pulling in the mens. Ciara Reilly and Eleanor Kelly(0-1) also caught the eye. Scorers were Tracey O’Halloran(0-4), Lesley Ann Long(0-2), Caoilfhionn Deeney(0-2) and Laurie Ahern(0-!).

There has been much talk of Emma Leonard’s great form in training and one was more than surprised at her absence from Sunday’s line-up. Her non-appearance was easily explained as Emma and her sister Aisling, also a member of the panel, had both been injured in a car accident. Considering the severity of the impact they had a very lucky escape. We wish them both a speedy recovery and return to action.

It was with a guarded optimism that the Intermediate men travelled to Newcastle on Friday night to play runaway leaders of their championship group, Ashford. As it turned out this was a fully justified state of mind as at 40 minutes into the game they had a 3 point lead and were holding their own. Then disaster struck. A naively conceded goal had the teams on level terms. After this Éire Óg’s scoring rate was reduced to a trickle – they passed up at least three glorious opportunities – while Ashford tagged on a goal and a number of points. Their 2nd goal came from a taking-the-wrong-option error by our forwards close to the Ashford goal. Ashford’s last goal, on the call of full-time came from a questionable penalty – the final score giving a distorted picture of the proceedings.

Eoin O’Neill’s point from play 45m out on the right sideline was the score of the game

It was great to see Des Mitchell out and about again after a little set-back. Des was not at all downcast at Éire Óg losing the game and felt that there was much that was positive about their performance.