Our Lady’s beaten in Ulster Ladies A Final

Our Ladys Castleblayney bold bid for three Ulster senior colleges titles ended in bitter disappointment last Tuesday in Crossmaglen when they went down to a well drilled St Pauls Bessbrook who were inspired by the Mackin sisters and in particular Aimee who contributed 3-12 to the south Armagh outfits total.

The Blayney girls entered the game as many pundits favourites having defeated the Bessbrook girls in the early stages of the competition, it was indeed an historic occasion for the school as there were competing in the schools first ever A football final. Aimee Mackin hit the net in the opening seconds to give Bessbrook a dream start against a strong breeze, if Mackin was the star of the show for Bessbrook, Donaghmoynes Niamh Callan was causing plenty of headaches for the Bessbrook defence hitting three goals in the opening half. Six goals, three for each side were hit in a frantic first twenty minutes, the Blayney girls hit two more before the break from Chloe Woods and Ellen Tibby and lead by three at the break. There lead could have been greater but for the excellence of Ann Carr the Bessbrook keeper who made five tremendous first half saves. HT Score Blayney 5-02 Bessbrook 3-05.

Roisin Finnegan hit another point for Our Ladys on the restart, but St Pauls now had the wind backing them and a goal from Aoibheann Jones was followed in the 45th minute by a Mackin penalty goal to see them pull six points clear with ten minutes to go. Aimee Mackin proceeded to kick points from a variety of angles and distances to end the game as a contest, team captain Alanna O’Donaghue scored a late consolation point for the Monaghan Girls

St Pauls A Carr, M Boyle, E King, E Rafferty, S Mc Crink, L Kenny, K Garvey, D Wright, M Murphy, C Boyle, A Mackin 3-12, B Mackin 1-05 A Jones 1-0, N Mc Keena, S King.

Castleblayney E Forde, B Sheridan, M Mc Cabe, A Mc Elroy, E McKernan, E Finnegan, R Finnegan 0-1 A O’Donaghue 0-1, Aine Mc Elroy, E Tibby 1-0, Chloe Woods 1-0, A Duffy 0-1, M Akinson, N Callan 3-03,  A Connolly. subs used A Mc Bennett, C Courtney, E Kerr

Referee Gavin Corrigan Down