Gailltir Can Hold Heads High Despite Narrow Defeat

There was heartbreak for Gailltir at Ashbourne on Sunday as they went down to Ulster Champions Eglish from Tyrone in the All-Ireland Intermediate Camogie Club Semi Final, with just one point separating the sides at the end of the hour.

For the Barony club it has being a twelve month period to remember.

At the start of the year (2016), its possibly fair to say that the Barony Club would be down the pecking order when it came to who would win the Senior Camogie Championship, behind the likes of Lismore and Saint Anne’s who dominated the game within the county over the past number of years and even against Cappoquin, one of the rising clubs within the county, a side that reached the 2016 County Senior League Final against neighbours Lismore.

But it would have been a foolish person that would have written off the chances of Gailltir.

They have some experienced players within their set up and also have invested a lot of time and energy into their underage set up in recent years and it was only a matter of time before every piece of the jig-saw began to fit into place.

Work for the 2016 season began at the end of 2015 and the Barony Club received a massive boost when Paul Lyng, a former manager of the Waterford side agreed to come on board the management team of his home club.

With Paul on board then the next obvious thing to do was to get his daughter Áine who had played in two Junior All-Ireland Final’s with Waterford in 2009 and 2010 back into a sky blue and navy shirt after she returned to live in Ireland after a spell in the United Kingdom.

At the same time Jenny O’Grady and Aileen Cummins arrived back in Ireland after spells in Australia and New Zealand and their return to the game was also a massive boost for Gailltir as was the fact that many of the players that helped the Barony Club to win three Féile Titles in a row in recent years were a year older and were winning a place for themselves in the starting team and not just claiming a place on the panel.

As the championship progressed it was no real surprise that Gailltir ended the dominance of Lismore and Saint Anne’s and won a first Senior County Final for the first time since 2008, and then for them to go on to capture the Munster Intermediate Championship in the weeks that followed, beating Cork champions Blackrock and Tipperary champions Nenagh Éire Óg.

But they knew going into last Sunday’s game that they face stiff opposition.

Eglish are the only Senior Club in Tyrone and were therefore champions, and they went on to beat opposition from Down and Armagh to capture the Ulster Intermediate title.

This was familiar territory for Eglish as they reached this stage of the competition twelve months ago, losing out to opposition from Galway on that occasion and they travelled south on Sunday morning intent on proving that to win a semi-final you first had to lose one. They showed great hunger on Sunday last to make up for the disappointment of twelve months ago.

In poor weather conditions, it was the Northern side that opened the scoring with a point from Niamh McNulty but her effort was soon cancelled out with an effort from Kate Lynch.

Maria Haughey edged the Tyrone side back in front on fourteen minutes after which Gailltir won two frees which went narrowly wide.

Eglish put pressure on the Gailltir defence and looked as if they were going to hit the first goal of the game but Ciara Jackman did brilliant to keep an effort from Aisling Jordan from reaching the net.

Leanne and Aisling Donnelly added further scores for the Ulster side and Áine Lyng hit one for Gailltir as they tuned around at the break trailing 0-4 to 0-2.

Scores in the second half in the weather conditions were as had won as they were in the first half.

Gailltir drew level with points from Kate Lynch and Áine Lyng by the midway point in the second half, before the Sky Blue’s had a great goal scoring opportunity but they were pulled for moving into the small square before the sliotar had arrive inside it.

Co Antrim referee Owen Elliott award the Ulster side a free out and it was from this free that the Tyrone side worked the sliotar to the Gailltir net for the games first green flag, as Leanne Donnelly finished to the net on the third attempt following two outstanding saves from Ciara Jackman with ten minutes to go.

Had the sliotar gone into the Eglish net moments earlier, the Barony Girls would have been on a high and surely would have gone on to win this game. But that is an ‘if’ and ifs and buts never win games.

The goal failed to ignite the Eglish forwards. Gailltir refused to throw in the towel and they were rewarded for their efforts when Kate Lynch picked out Áine Lyng with a long ball and Áine in turn found Trish Jackman who blasted to the Eglish net to level matters for the second time in the second half.

But there was to be no fairy-tale finish for Gailltir as Eglish won a free on the Gailltir ’45 metre line and when presented with a chance Aisling Jordan made no mistake in securing the game for her side on a 1-5 to 1-4 score line.

It was a case of so near for Gailltir. There can be no disputing that after the game they will have felt down, but they can keep their heads very high. 2016 was a very successful year for the club, one that they will remember for a long time.

They will learn from this game and come back a better team when they play in the County League and Championship, but they will know that they will have to be at their very best to win honours in 2017, but they will be very confident that this will happen, and more over now that the team will be hungry to make up for the defeat to Eglish.

Gailltir: Ciara Jackman; Áine O’Keeffe, Clara Hogan, Claire Dunne; Aileen Cummins, Sally O’Grady, Jenny O’Grady; Emma Roche, Áine Lyng; Annie Glavey, Shauna Fitzgerald, Trish Jackman; Roisin Flood, Eilis Cullinane, Kate Lynch. Subs Used: Emer Walsh for Eilis Cullinane, Aisling Flood for Roisin Flood, Emily O’Mahony for Jenny O’Grady. Rest of the Panel: Sinead Cunningham, Fiona Conroy, Hannah Hutchinson, Sarah Smith, Emma Frampton, Emma Tallon, Shannon Delahunty, Margo Heffernan, Chloe Murphy, Claire O’Riordan.

Scorers: Trish Jackman 1-0, Áine Lyng, Kate Lynch 0-2 each.

Eglish: Leona Gallagher; Laura Mason, Kelley Cuddy, Cathy Jordan; Aisling Donnelly, Brenda Horsfield, Claire Jordan; Shauna Jordan, Ciara McGready; Ciara Donnelly, Maria Haughey, Niamh McNulty; Aisling Jordan, Meabh McHugh, Leanne Donnelly. Subs: Julie Lagan, Lisa Marie Skeffington, Amy Barrett, Denise Galvin, Annette Jordan, Áine Donnelly, Siobhan Hughes, Meabh McGlennan.

Scorers: Leanne Donnelly 1-1, Aisling Jordan 0-2 (2f), Maria Haughey, Niamh McNulty 0-1 each.

Referee: Owen Elliott (Antrim).