Corrigan’s goal sends Gaels through to Carrickmacross tie

Enniskillen Gaels set up a Ladies Ulster Junior Championship Quarter Final tie away to Carrickmacross with a hard fought, but well deserved, victory over Magherafelt at Brewster Park on Saturday.

Playing against the breeze, the Gaels would have been happy to go in only one point adrift at the interval and they got off to the perfect start to the second half when Aoife Corrigan blasted to the back of the net.

Boosted by this the home side pushed on to open up a four point lead and they then showed plenty of resolve and resilience at the other end of the pitch to keep their noses in front through to the finish.

“It was into the unknown for us, we had watched the Derry county final between them and Coleraine and we seen a few areas where we thought that they were strong and figured out where we felt they had a few weaknesses and we exploited that,” said joint manager Fiacre O’Donnell, who was pleased with how his side played against the breeze.

“We knew they would come at us with the breeze and they missed a few chances although we put them under enough pressure when they were shooting and that contributed to it. After we weathered that we felt we were in with a good shout and that’s how it worked out,” he said.

O’Donnell was also delighted with the start his side made to the second half with Corrigan’s goal.

“We couldn’t have asked for a better start, it was a rasping shot to the corner,” he said.

And having got ahead, he felt they defended superbly to stay in front.

“They were playing against the wind and also I think that up to this point our defence has been extremely good and extremely hard to get scores off. They don’t give up a score easy so we knew once we got a bit of a lead it was in our hands and we didn’t give them anything easy,” he said.

Magherafelt , with the breeze at their backs, made a fast start to the game as they landed the opening two scores of the contest. Ellie McGuckin clipped over a free before the same player then knocked over from an acute angle from play to make it 0-02 to 0-00.

Enniskillen though started to work their way into the game and Eimear Keenan settled them down as she registered their first score from a free before the corner forward then tagged on a point from play to level things at 0-02 apiece.

The Derry outfit were enjoying the greater possession but they were wasteful in front of the posts and although Sinead Comer edged them back ahead, Erin Tierney answered with a terrific point with her weaker right foot.

It was Magherafelt though who went in at half time with the lead as Comer landed a fine score from play to leave it 0-04 to 0-03 at half time.

The Gaels though made a flying start to the second half as from the throw in they went on the attack and the ball was worked to Corrigan who unleashed a fiercely struck effort past the Magherafelt goalkeeper and into the back of the net.

Buoyed by this Enniskillen pulled further clear as Tierney and Kiah Collins both fired over points and with seven minutes of the second half gone they led 1-05 to 0-04.

Magherafelt did have a couple of chances to eat into that lead from frees but they were off target although Kate Higgins and Janette Slevin did fire over points as they cut the deficit back to two.

Enniskillen were forced on to the back foot but they dug in with Lauren Jones getting through a mountain of work in the middle of the park while Aoibhinn Kelly and Erin Maguire were outstanding in the full back line.

And as the clocked moved towards full time Tierney and Keenan converted frees to give Enniskillen breathing space.

Magherafelt did have one last chance but Shauna Murphy pulled off a super save from McGuckin as Enniskillen held on to win by four.

They are back in Ulster action this Sunday in Carrickmacross and O’Donnell admits it is another journey into the unknown for them.

“We wouldn’t know a lot about them but Monaghan have a reputation for being strong in Ladies football although I think what we take positive from last weekend was how Kinawley performed against a Monaghan team,” he said.

And he says that they will go there and look for another strong performance.

“We will have a similar gameplan to what we normally have and we’ll give it ten or 15 minutes and see how it is developing and we should have a good idea by that stage what they are like.

“We will then rely on our defence to do the great job they always do, our midfield to be that engine and then we have some great forwards who can get scores,” he added.