Hannah Landers' Brace of Goals keep Waterford top of Ladies National Football League

With three rounds of games played in the third division of this year Ladies National Football League Campaign, Waterford sit proudly on top with maximum points after they followed their wins over Offaly and Wexford up with a win over Tipperary at Fraher Field.

This was always expected to prove to be a close game and that is exactly how it worked out.

The sides have met on a number of times in recent years and on each occasion the games went to the wire. For much of the game the visitors in this game lead and it looked as though John Leahy’s charges would collect a second win in this year’s league, but two goals from Hannah Landers, one in each half ensured that victory was going to be Waterford’s.

Tipperary had a great start to this game. Within two minutes of the start they were a goal up after Lorraine O’Shea capitalised on some early hesitancy in the Waterford defence and beat Aimee Jordan.

Waterford however hit back with points from Michelle McGrath on eight minutes and a minute later her Ballymacarbry club mate Mairead Wall added a second Waterford point.

Waterford took the lead just short of the end of the first quarter when Hannah Landers stuck a well taken goal, but sisters Claire and Edith Carroll hit back with points for the visitors to lock the scoring at 1-2 a piece.

Waterford hit the next two scores through Michelle Ryan and Linda Wall which proved to be the home sides last of the first half. The visitors however finished the opening half the stronger of the two sides as Gillian O’Brien, Mairead Morrissey and Claire Carroll all landed points which gave Tipperary a 1-5 to 1-4 advantage at the turn around.

Tipperary started the second half as they ended the first, hitting the first score through Lorraine O’Shea.

It was important now that Waterford scored and they did adding the next two scores from Linda Wall and Michelle Ryan.

Tipperary hit back with a brace of points from Mairead Wall which gave them a 1-8 to 1-6 advantage with forty two minutes on the clock, but a Linda Wall point her third of the game cut the visitors lead to just one with twelve minutes to play.

A minute later, Linda Wall took a quick free and found the unmarked Hannah Landers who blasted past Lauren Fitzpatrick in the Tipperary goal to give Waterford a 2-7 to 1-8 advantage.

Jennifer Grant pulled a point back for Tipperary but it was cancelled out with a Michelle McGrath effort. The Visitors through Claire Carroll hit the last score of the game (a point) but it proved to be too little too late as Waterford held on to keep their 100% winning start to this years league in tact.

Next up for Waterford is a long trip to the midlands to play Longford while Tipperary has a home game against Sligo. In other round four games Armagh are at home to Offaly and Wexford have home advantage against Leitrim.

Before that however, Armagh play Longford and Offaly play Leitrim in games that had to be postponed earlier on due to the recent weather conditions.

Waterford: Aimee Jordan (Abbeyside); Nora Dunphy (Comeragh Rangers), Ciara Dunphy (Comeragh Rangers), Mary Foley (Abbeyside); Louise Ryan (Ballymacarbry), Karen McGrath (Ballymacarbry), Róisín Tobin (Abbeyside); Michelle McGrath (Ballymacarbry), Elaine Power (Tramore); Linda Wall (Ballymacarbry), Michelle Ryan (Ballymacarbry), Mairead Wall (Ballymacarbry), Aileen Wall (Ballymacarbry), Margaret Revins (Old Parish), Hannah Landers (Ballyduff Upper). Subs:  Shauna Dunphy (Comeragh Rangers) for Margaret Revins, Liz Devine (Na Déise) for Louise Ryan.

Scorers: Hannah Landers 2-0; Linda Wall 0-3, Michelle McGrath, Michelle Ryan 0-2 each, Mairead Wall 0-1.

Tipperary: Lauren Fitzpatrick (Ardfinnan); Sinead Delahunty (Foxrock/Cabinteely), Samantha Lambert (Ardfinnan), Rachel Kenneally (Aherlow); Siobhan Condon (Aherlow), Jennifer Grant (Brian Borus), Barbara Ryan (Moyle Rovers); Lorraine O'Shea (Mullinahone), Niamh Lonergan (Moyle Rovers); Edith Carroll (Galtee Rovers), Claire Carroll (Galtee Rovers), Gillian O'Brien (Moyle Rovers); Kirsty Downey (Cahir), Mairead Morrissey (Brian Borus), Shauna Ryan (Ballymacarbry). Subs: Brid Condon (Aherlow) for Rachel Kenneally, Emer Myles (Brian Borus) for Kirsty Downey, Maeve Hackett (Moycarkey Borris) for Siobhan Condon.
Scorers: Lorraine O’Shea 1-1, Mairead Morrissey 0-3 (0-1 frees), Claire Carroll 0-3, Edith Carroll, Gillian O'Brien, Jennifer Grant 0-1 each.

Referee: Mags Doherty.

Tesco Homegrown NFL Div 3 Division 3

	Played	Won	Lost	Drawn	Points For	Points Against	Points Diff	Points
Waterford	3	3	0	0	67	33	34	9
Armagh	2	2	0	0	47	21	26	6
Leitrim	2	2	0	0	54	31	23	6
Tipperary	3	1	2	0	44	41	3	3
Sligo	3	1	2	0	69	70	-1	3
Longford	2	1	1	0	28	32	-4	3
Offaly	2	0	2	0	21	54	-33	0
Wexford	3	0	3	0	32	80	-48	0