Sen B camogie semi final: O'Mahony's set up final date with Trim

Cara Ratty Navan O'Mahony's

Navan O’Mahony’s 3-16
Boardsmill 2-09

Pitch no. 4 in Dunganny was the venue for the Senior B Camogie Championship Semi Final between Navan O’Mahonys and Boardsmill on Saturday.  These teams had served up a cracker of a contest in their earlier group stages game in Paddy O’Brien Park with the Navan girls just about shading a high scoring encounter.  On this occasion it was the Boardsmill girls who settled first and no doubt, buoyed by their football success of the previous weekend, took an early lead . 

O’Mahonys opened their account with a goal from Isabel O’Connor following a well worked team move. Both sides exchanged points over the next 10 minutes. When Boardsmill got through for a goal midway through the first half, it seemed to be a significant score however O’Mahonys answered back within 60 seconds with a green flag of their own at the other end of the field.  Jorja Keogh hit two fine points from her left-wing role and with Cara Ratty accurate on deal balls, O’Mahonys were finding it just a little bit easier to get their scores.  Boardsmill did cut through on occasion but were met with firm resistance from the O’Mahonys rearguard lead admirably by Amanda Feeney & Alannah Brady in particular. In the closing stages of an evenly contested first half both sides added goals with Annie Hogan’s long range point effort deceiving the veteran Boardsmill net minder Christine O’Brien who apart from that slight mis- judgement was excellent throughout.

The rate of scoring slowed somewhat in the second half and for a period both defences seemed to be on top. Midfielder Lauren Donegan continued to win a lot of hard-fought possession around the middle third with her namesake Lauren Woods working as hard as ever further forward. One brilliant piece of play by the Navan girls saw Isabel O’Connor field a high ball on the edge of the square and as she was bottled up by two Boardsmill defenders picked out her full forward Mia McNally with a handpass, McNally   showed brilliant skill to connect with the pass with a lightning first time ground pull and was unlucky to see her effort cannon off the cross bar to safety.   10 minutes into the second half O’Mahonys looked to inject further pace and athleticism into their team with first Ailbhe Leahy and then Claire Mallon joining the action. Both made significant impacts with their energy and movement punching holes in a tiring Boardsmill rearguard. Aoibhinn Kielty and Saoirse O’Regan also entered the fray with Kielty scoring a snappy point off her left not long after her introduction.

At that stage, with a decent lead established the last 10 minutes were about not conceding any unnecessary scores for the Navan girls and they held their discipline and concentration well to see out the closing stages.

This win puts them back into a Senior B final where they will take on Trim who defeated them in their first-round encounter. 

Navan O'Mahony's: Mags Tomkins, Megan Kinsella, Amanda Feeney, Alannah Brady, Anna Gardiner, Tara Fay, Roisin Toibin, Annie Hogan, Lauren Donegan, Jorja Keogh, Lauren Woods, Izzy Kinsella, Cara Ratty, Mia McNally, Isabel O’Connor

Subs: Claire Mallon for Keogh, Ailbhe Leahy for McNally, Aoibhinn Kielty for I. Kinsella, Saoirse O’Regan for M.Kinsella