Laura Buckley’s point separates the sides at Fraher Field.

Lismore are on course to repeat much of what they achieved during 2013 and the early part of 2014 after they overcame the challenge of Saint Anne’s to win the County Senior Camogie Final for the fourth time in six years on Sunday afternoon at Fraher Field

The sides are no strangers to each other having met so often in the last number of years and with both sides providing the bulk of the players which form the county intermediate team.

With both teams so well known to each other and so evenly balanced, the game was going to pan out in one of two ways. One way the game would be fought out in a classic way, where scores came thick and fast, as they did twelve months ago when Lismore won 2-15 to 0-15 at Lemybrien, or else it was going to be a cagey affair with both defences on top, and every score won by both sides would be hard earned.

The game panned out the latter way, but in saying that, over the course of the hour plus eight or nine minutes that were added, what the players served up was pretty enjoyable.

The biggest talking point in this game happened eight minutes into the second half. Inter county player Niamh Rockett sent in a ball from the stand side of the field towards the road goal. From the centre of the stand it looked as if the ball had slipped inside the right hand upright, but despite the protests of the Saint Anne’s player the Umpires decision made stood.

The job of a match official is not an easy one. Officials receive a lot of abuse from the stand or the sideline but till you are in the position of the officials you don’t fully understand why some calls are made the way they are.

I have refereed enough under 12 and school league games in my life, or should I stay stood on the field with a whistle and even at this level of competition it can be difficult.

I have also stood behind goalposts as an umpire and never went out to do anyone in my decisions, but have found that if you are not standing in the correct position as the ball comes in towards the goals, you can easily get a call wrong. I have to hold up my hand and admit I have got more than one or two wrong in my time.

Maybe the umpires on Sunday afternoon at Fraher Field were slightly out in the best positions to stand at. The umpire with the white flag at first glance appeared to think the ball went between the posts, but the umpire on the other side, the side the ball came in from was adamant the ball had gone wide.

There was not a lot of consultation between the officials, but maybe the fact there was not many Lismore players trying to influence their call might have told what they though.

Saint Anne’s made a lot of the early running in this game but failed to show their dominance on the score sheet.

The first score of the game came on seven minutes, when Lismore’s hat-trick hero for their All-Ireland Final replay win over Ballyhale Shamrocks last March – Catriona McGlone finished to the net for the games only goal.

Lismore followed up with a brace of Aoife Hannon points from frees which gave them a give point advantage with just eleven minutes played.

Those expecting Lismore to push on and win the game comfortable after setting up such an early lead would be left looking foolish as Saint Anne’s came storming back into the game hitting the next six scores in the game.

Karen Kelly put over a free on sixteen minutes which was followed with scores from Jennie Simpson and Zoe O’Donoghue to leave just two between the sides with twenty-one minutes on the clock.

Karen Kelly put over a brace of frees on twenty-five and twenty-nine minutes to level matters and a minute later Saint Anne’s were in the lead for the first and only time when Karen Kelly put over her fourth point of the game, this one from play.

However before the half time whistle was blown, Aoife Hannon from a free put over a third of the game to sent the sides to the dressing rooms locked at 1-3 to 0-6 at the interval.

Neither of the two sides in the early exchanges of the second half wanted to make a mistake that would hand the advantage to the other side, the end result proving to be a cagey start to the half.

Niamh Rockett had the first major chance of the second half but her shot from the right wing was deemed to have gone to the right side of uprights as she looked.

The first score of the second half did not arrive till the eleventh minute of the half, a Catriona McGlone point which gave the lead back to Lismore. The same player three minutes later extended Lismore’s lead to two and it was now looked as if Lismore’s experience in playing in a number of big games in the past twelve months would begin to show.

Saint Anne’s have a good team and the measure of a good team is how you bounce back after falling behind.

The mid county side did so with a Karen Kelly free on fifty minutes and when the same player put over another free a minute later the sides were level for the third time in the game and it looked as though a replay could be on the cards between the two to find a winner.

Two further minutes elapsed before the next score arrived, a crucial one that went in Lismore’s favour from the stick of Aoife Hannon, but she could be said to be very unlucky not to have had her side even further in front as her shot which appeared to be destined for the rood of the Saint Anne’s net was met with the hurley of Ciara Phelan in the Saint Anne’s goal who deflected the ball just over the crossbar.

With six minutes to play, Lismore added to their tally on the score board when Laura Buckley hit possibly the most crucial score she will ever hit in a black and amber shirt.

The game was not over yet and on the hour mark Karen Kelly hit her seventh score of the game to leave just one point between the sides once again.

What time that remained was known only to referee Ger Browne. Three minutes into added time, Saint Anne’s won a free between their own sixty five metre line and the centre of the field, and dead straight in from of the Lismore goal.

Often in such circumstances one of the half backs would be invited to strike the ball and to lob it in around the oppositions goal and then hope for the best, but when you have a free taker like Karen Kelly in your side, the best option may be to brink her back to take free, something that happened here.

The attendance of over five hundred (estimated) inside the ground were asking themselves could she find the range and have the accuracy to send the ball over the cross bar and if she did, then the full time whistle would be expected to be blown almost straight away.

Had the game finished in a draw, few if any could have complained. Should it be fixed for the same venue and people heard about the standard served up by both teams, the capacity for the replay could well be doubled.

As a hush fell on Fraher Field, the Saint Anne’s player had no problem in finding the range, even when the ball hit the netting behind the goal it still had plenty of elevation, but the accuracy was just a little out, going wide of the left hand post at the road end of the ground.

The full time whistle was expected after the restart, but it failed to happen. Another two minutes were added. In this time neither side failed to register any further scores.

Lismore won 1-7 to 0-9 and will not go on to represent Waterford in the Munster Intermediate Club Championship in the coming weeks.

Can they repeat what they achieved in late 2013 and early 2014? I for one believe they can, but for it to happen they may have up their performance a little on what they served up in this game.  

Lismore: Tanya Morrissey; Sarah Coughlan, Shauna Prendergast, Marie Russell; Aoife Houlihan, Grainne Kenneally; Laura Buckley, Shona Curran; Johnanna Houlihan, Aoife Hannon, Sharon Williams; Nicola Morrissey, Ruth Geoghegan, Caitriona McGlone. Subs: Sarah Fenton for Johanna Houlihan, Niamh Molumphy for Ruth Geoghegan. Rest of the panel: Aisling O’Brien, Kate Heneghan, Sarah Geoghegan, Ellen Curran, Alice Russell.

Scorers: Catriona McGlone 1-2, Emma Hannon 0-4 (3f) Laura Buckley 0-1.

Saint Anne’s: Ciara Phelan; Claire Whyte, Labhaoise Dunbar, Bonnie Keating; Saoirse Bonner, Pauline Cunningham, Mairead Murphy; Charlotte Raher, Jennie Simpson; Karen Kelly, Sinead Cummins, Claire Murphy; Zoe O’Donoghue, Niamh Rockett, Becky Kavanagh. Subs: Sibeal Harney for Niamh Rockett, Niamh Behan for Claire Murphy. Rest of the Panel: Michelle McDonald, Emma O’Connor, Chloe McGrath, Rachel McDonald, Michelle O’Donoghue, Rachael Keane, Roisin Murphy, Catherine Queally.

Scorers: Karen Kelly 0-7 (5 frees), Jennie Simpson, Zoe O’Donoghue 0-1 each.

Referee: Ger Browne.