Down Senior Ladies County Team

The Ladies next game is in the Final of the Ulster Championship in the last weekend of June/early July 2017. The girls are back to County Training this week in the Abbey #MourneLadiesRising

Down U16 Ladies County Team

The girls played Cavan in Clonduff on Saturday 22nd April. The Down Ladies County Board, would like to thank Clonduff for hosting the event and for their hospitality on the day. It was superb work, organising the function room and taking charge of the refreshments and most important of all for the home made cinnamon scones that were superb. So, thank you Clonduff. The game itself was a lesson +in football in the first half with a rampant Cavan team putting Down to the sword. The Mourne girls tired but handling errors on a wet day and some poor choices added to the woes in the first half including management errors in the team set up. We had to just put this all to one side at half time and start from scratch. The brightest part of the first half was Niamh Meehan's performance in goal saving quite a few goals and strong when receiving the ball breaking out of defence with purpose and the points scored by Anna McKee and Niamh Rice. We moved Beth O'Neill back into midfield to strengthen our defence and asked the Girls not to Give Up. Beth McDowell went into goals and like Niamh made some crucial saves and was strong under a high ball with intelligent kick outs and an al round excellent performance. 

Aimee O'Hanlon at full back and Catherine price and Grace Cunningham in the corners fought tooth and nail for ever ball and should a renewed vigour in the tackle and won key possession. Aoibheann Brehtnil at centre half back produced a breath taking second half display along with Alice McAlea and Kiara Kairns ran the legs of themselves. Beth O'Neill and Orla Blaney now had the belief and a titanic battle with Cavan midfield and the platform for a second half comeback. The half forwards and full forwards now had ball and good ball to work with and become more of threat. Anna Mckee and Niamh Rice were play as 2 full forwards and provide the only 2 scores of the first half for Down. Both Started brightly in the second half with Anna Quinn join they frey and winning two frees ion the left dispatched both ease by the now rampant Taylor Poland who dominated the half forward battle with Cavan's defence along with Megan Jennings and Aoibheann Quinn and joined by Cora Sherry in the second half. All were now clearly up for the task at hand and contributed to the Down revival. Down scored 1:6 in the second half to Cavan's 3 scores. 

We have asked all the Girls to take part in a 3-year plan for development which includes improved performances in games against Monaghan and Cavan, only spoilt by a poor second half against Donegal.   We have 1 game left against Derry details to follow. All the mentors on the day, Brenda Murphy, Paddy McCrickard, Fergus Bradley And Sean Sherry are so proud of these girls for their commitment and for never giving up. They are the future of Down football that is no doubt. Captains on the day were Taylor Poland and Beth O'Neill.

 

U16 Team Photo Below

 

Down U15 Ladies Development Team

Down U15's continued their winning ways on Sunday 23rd at RGU Downpatrick with a tough, physical challenge against Monaghan. In a low scoring first half, it took the girls slightly longer than previous to settle into their stride but by the end of the first 30 mins each player had worked tirelessly to take ownership of the job that they were given. Half time score 1.03 - 0.03 in Down's favour. Second half started more positively with the girls upping their game, defending immensely in all areas of the pitch. A few early scores settled the girls and they continued to put pressure on Monaghan's constant attacking style of play. Final score 5.07 - 0.05 which leaves Down at top of the table with 4 wins out of 4. The last league game is away to Donegal next Saturday 29th April. Many thanks to RGU Downpatrick for the use of excellent facilities, it is much appreciated.

 

Down U14 Ladies County Team

Down U14's played in the fourth round of the Ulster Championship on Saturday 22nd April, the final result was Down 1.3 Cavan 5.13. Full report to follow.

 

Down U13 Ladies County Development Team 

The girls travelled to St Ergnat's, Moneyglass for their penultimate game in the U13 Development league against the all-conquering Antrim girls, who have won each game to date very comfortably and who are a seriously strong outfit. Within one minute of the throw-in, the Saffrons were awarded a penalty which they put past our keeper. Down responded very quickly with a three pointer after being awarded a penalty at the other end. They then followed this up with another goal and a point to take the lead against the home side. Antrim then piled on the pressure and knocked over a number of points to go in front as the first half came to a close. However, in that spell, the Down defence was working very hard and sniffing out a number of Antrim attacks and pressurising the Antrim girls into kicking a number of wides. After playing against a slight breeze and up a slight slope, the scoreline was Antrim 1-7 Down 2-1. The second half continued in the same vein as the first with both sides creating chances but both defences were making life difficult for the forwards. After a point for Antrim, within the space of two minutes both Down and Antrim had scored a goal each, with Down's second penalty of the afternoon. Antrim then converted another goal chance but the next 10 minutes belonged to Down as they kicked over three points to leave just 3 between the teams at 3-8 to 3-5 with four minutes to go. However, the Saffrons finished very strong against a Down team who were trying their level best to keep them out and with some dubious decisions and strong play by Antrim the home side closed out the game with 5 additional minutes of time being played to win on a score line of 4-13 to 3-5. This was by far the best performance from the Mourne girls as they continue to improve with every outing, and they can be very proud of their efforts against an excellent Antrim outfit. Next up is Armagh at home on Saturday 6th May in the last league game of the season.

 

Captain's Photo: Aoife Doyle (Bredagh) pictured with Maria O'Neill (St Ergnats)

 

Down U13 Team

 

Tweet

Most Read Stories