By: Tara Byrne

St. Laurence's 3-13
Leixlip 1-9

A tenacious and battle hardened display from the St. Laurence's defence helped get the South Kildare side back to winning ways. It was St. Laurence's who drew first blood in this end to end affair, Lorraine Bowes doing the honours after all of 44 seconds of play.

Unfortunately for the home side they were not able to maintain this early pressure and quickly retreated into their defensive shell, as Leixlip bombarded the St. Laurence's goals with shot after shot. Failing to make their possession count they hit five early wides giving Larries a chance to catch their breath and rebuild.

It was the tenth minute before Larries managed to work their second attack, after great work by captain Susie Byrne cutting out the attack of Leixlip's Aileen Quinn to set up Kate Leahy, Leahy's shot unfortunately drifted wide.

Buoyed by this foray into Leixlip territory mid-field Brianne Leahy followed the in the footsteps of her sister before playing a swift one-two with Myra O'Reilly, Leahy split the sticks to double her sides tally as St. Laurence's had managed to navigate the Leixlip onslaught unscathed.

A point for Leixlip's Christina Newton mid way through the first half halved the deficit before two further frees from the boot of Bowes helped her side exert dominance over the game.

At this stage Leixlip began to panic not knowing where their next score would be coming from Aishling Newton finding her shot on goal landing straight in the hands of Larries keeper Rochelle Keane. Minutes later Newton found herself with an opportunity to rectify her earlier attempt, this time avoiding the keeper Newton found the upright, the rebound falling to cousin Christina Newton who's shot went the same way. The rebound this time striking fear into the watching support as it bounced off Larries keeper Keane, the cool head of wing-back Susie Byrne working the ball out of defence, and seamlessly working defence into attack Larries profited through a fourth Bowes point, this her second from play.

With five minutes remaining Maria Moolick hit a second point for the visitors to leave a kick of the ball between the sides. Despite this the Leixlip half-back line were finding it difficult to get to grips with the free-running Larries attack and with Donna Berry fouling Brianne Leahy, Bowes had the opportunity to put four between the sides. She dually obliged.

Just as Leixlip took a moment the assess the damage that was caused by the latest Bowes point Larries were wise to the kick-out, and O'Reilly had the ball in the back of the Leixlip net to leave the sides seven points adrift on a scoreline of 1-6 to 0-2 as the half-time break loomed.

St. Laurence's began the second half as they did the first with Bowes opening the scoring with a fine point two minutes after the restart.
With Leixlip is dire need of a goal as the game looked to have gotten away from the travelling side, up stepped Avril Lambert to give her side a fighting chance once again. A point from full-forward Moolick had the gap again at four points.

Leixlip were unlucky not to cut this to a single point when a Karen O'Shea attempt could only find the knee of Keane in the St. Laurence's goals.
Sparked by this Larries poured forward again in numbers working the ball to Joeanna Cullen who put past the Leixlip keeper to restore her sides half-time lead. Three frees from the boot of Moolick brought the result right back into the melting pot as the game entered the final quarter.

The sides then traded point Brianne Leahy and Bowes pointing for the home side before replies from Christina Newton and O'Shea meant the crowd were set for a nervy finale.

Two late Bowes points followed by a goal from Leahy 23 seconds later had looked to have settled the tie, before a point from Leixlip's wing-forward Tara Hallinan which proved to be little more that a late conciliation for her side.

Last minutes points from Cullen and Bowes put the gloss on what was a good win for this St. Laurence's side.

Scorers: St. Laurence's: Lorraine Bowes 0-10 (5f), Brianne Leahy 1-2, Joeanna Cullen 1-1, Myra O'Reilly 1-0.
Leixlip: Maria Moolick 0-5 (3f), Avril Lambert 1-0, Christina Newton 0-2, Karen O'Shea 0-1, Tara Hallinan 0-1.
Ref: Jody Callan Tweet

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