St. Sylvester's 4-11 Kinawley 2-05

Ulster Champions Kinawley had no answer to the power and quality of Leinster champions, St. Sylvester’s when they met in the semi-final of the All-Ireland Intermediate Club Championship last Sunday.

The winners raced into a six point lead thanks to two early goals and they never looked at being caught thereafter.

With Dublin players Sinead Aherne, Kate Sullivan and Nicole Owens leading the way for the Dublin side, their defensive set up frustrated Kinawley on numerous occasions forcing them into mistakes and shots from difficult angles or turnovers which were regularly punished.

The game was one minute old when Aherne hit her first goal of the day.

A long ball from Owens found the full forward in the corner and she played a one-two with Louise Ryan before beating a couple of Kinawley defenders and keeper Donna Owens.

Five minutes later Aherne and Owens were again involved as the latter played Emma Sullivan through and she fired to the corner to make it 2-00 to 0-00 with six minutes played.

Kinawley opened their account on eight minutes through a Shauna Melanaphy score before Joanne Doonan tapped over a free.

But back came St. Sylvester’s and they went the whole way up the pitch from a kick out with Lisa Murphy, Kate Sullivan, Aherne and Owens involved before Aherne pointed from play. And this was followed by a point from Sophie McGlynn to make 2-02 to 0-02 at the water break.

Kinawley were given a huge boost immediately after the water break when they got their first goal.

Niamh McManus burst through the middle and laid off to Doonan who played a great ball over the top to Aine McManus and she fired to the net. But it was a shortlived boost as Aherne got her second goal of the game to make it 3-02 to 1-02.

Doonan responded with a point from play before St. Sylvester’s hit the last four scores of the half through Aherne (2), Kate Sullivan and Grace Twomey to leave it 3-06 to 1-03 at the break.

The start of the second half saw Twomey pick up another score while Doonan landed a free for Kinawley with 35 minutes played.

Another Aherne free was followed by the Dublin side’s fourth goal.

Half back Emma Lynch passed to Owens who found Aherne and while her shot was saved, substitute Katie O’Sullivan was on hand to fire home the rebound.

Aherne then hit another free to increase the lead to 4-09 to 1-04.

Kinawley were still working hard but found it hard against an impressive St. Sylvester’s defence.

However, they did find some joy when a Róisín O’Reilly high ball was dropped by the keeper and Doonan reacted quickest to score a goal to leave it 4-09 to 2-04 with 15 minutes to play.

With 11 points in it, St. Sylvester’s were in control with O’Sullivan adding a point.

Keelan Murphy then pointed off the outside of her boot from out on the right which was contender for score of the game before Kate Sullivan rounded off the scoring.

The Dublin side were happy to keep possession in the closing stages and while Kinawley did manage to turn them over any chance of a late score was snuffed out by the Dublin side’s defence as it ended 4-11 to 2-05.

KINAWLEY: D Owens; C Breen, K Murphy, K Donnelly; E Keenan, C Murphy, C Leonard; R O’Reilly, A McGovern; L Doonan, A Haran, A McManus (1-00); S Melanaphy (0-01), J Doonan (1-03; 2f), N McManus.

Subs: G McCaffrey for Melanaphy, K Murphy (0-01) for Haran, M Murphy for L Doonan, K Magee for N McManus.

ST SYLVESTER’S: S Brennan; C Fitzpatrick, K White, L Harrold; L Murphy, D Lawless, E Lynch; N Owens, G Twomey (0-02); K Sullivan (0-02), E Sullivan (1-00), N Harney; S McGlynn (0-01), S Aherne (2-05; 0-4f), L Ryan.

Subs: G McGinty for E Sullivan, K O’Sullivan (1-01) for McGlynn, K Tanner for Harney, A McDonnell for Owens.

Referee: Declan Carolan (Armagh).