Football Championship Results
Saturday 30th July, 2005

JFC = Junior Football Championship

An Improvement by Clan na Gael
Ladies'Junior B Football Championship
Fog City Harps 3-11 Clan na Gael 1-7

Clan na Gael opened well in the first game of the Ladies’ Junior B Championship best-of-three series. The Clans initially kept Fog City contained at their own end of the field for several minutes, but Fog eventually broke out of this and started winning more breaking balls to move the ball up the field. Clan na Gael kept the pressure on though, closing their opponents down, making life difficult for them, and forcing them to concede frees. A Clan na Gael goal by Chantel Donnelly put them in a very strong position and they led by 1-5 to 0-4 at half time.

The wind very much had an effect on this game though. The second half saw Fog City doing most of the attacking but kicking a lot of wides. Anne Doyle got a goal back for Fog City followed not even a minute later by another one from Aisling O’Flynn kicked along the ground and rolled into the corner of the net. As Mags Burke made her long awaited comeback on the field after a five year absence, a surprise third Fog City goal by Aisling O’Flynn bounced over the goalie’s head and up against the roof of the net to seal the game. Fog City were creating a lot of goal-scoring opportunities, but vigilant defending by Clan na Gael kept the majority of them at bay.

Compared to recent performances, it was not a bad result for the Clans, and the ladies’ Junior B football championship looks a lot more open now than it did a few weeks ago.

Referee: Frankie Keenan, Sean Treacy’s / Naomh Padraig

Ulster Edged Out of the Junior Championship
Junior Football Championship
Sons of Boru 1-10 Ulster 0-11

It was an ominously lacklustre first fifteen minutes to this game with little sign of Life in the Boru camp and wides galore from Ulster. The game eventually got into gear though, with Boru working their way up the field by winning frees and Ulster using the tailwind to good effect with more accurate shooting.

Boru did fine when the breeze came behind them in the second half. Ulster really lifted their game with a much more determined approach to getting and holding posession, and a Boru goal by James Reynolds followed by a quick point equalised the scores. Ulster very nearly got a goal back thanks to Micahel Donnelly sprinting in from mid field but he was blown up for overcarrying before he could convert. With the sides level at Ulster 0-11, Boru 1-8, Boru’s James Reynolds shooting from half forward dropped a lovely point directly between the posts. There was a period late in the game when the ball buzzed around the Boru goalmouth and looked like reversing the result, but the Boru defending was too strong to allow anything to come of it.

Referee: Declan McConn, Young Irelanders