Lidl NFL Division 4 final – Carlow 1-7 Limerick 0-6
Carlow’s Sara Doyle paid tribute to all the players who had gone before them and paved the way for their first ever Lidl National Football League Division 4 title.
“It’s unbelievable. For me, this is maybe my fifth or sixth year playing, but at the final whistle all I could think of was Edel Hayden. She has been playing since 2001, that’s as old as I am! This is the first thing she’s properly won,” said Doyle.
“That actually makes me emotional to think about it and all the players who played before us, who never won anything with Carlow, but just kept going, kept going.”
“I think the last three championships we’ve lost All-Ireland semi-finals, one of them even went to extra-time. It was always next year, next year and this year finally.
“I think once you win one, that’s the momentum we need. I think the league, it’s great momentum for championship and this is one out of three trophies we want to win this year. There’s Leinster next and then there’s All-Ireland. That’s our goal.”
Substitute Maeve O’Neill struck a 55th minute goal at Grant Heating St Brendan’s Park in Birr on Saturday to send Carlow on their way to victory.
Carlow were only 0-3 to 0-1 adrift at the break having played against the strong wind and they levelled within three minutes of the restart thanks to a couple of frees from Cliodhna Ni She.
Then Roisin Bailey and Rachel Sawyer knocked over quickfire points from play to give Carlow a 0-5 to 0-3 platform after 40 minutes.
Limerick equalised through Deborah Murphy and Iris Kennelly before Ni She edged Carlow back in front and then came the decisive score when O’Neill found the net and there was no way back for Limerick.
“Overall, we’ll be disappointed,” said Limerick joint manager Sean Kiely. “The girls will be exceptionally disappointed. I know we’ve promotion got out of it, but they will feel that they could have done a bit better today. That’s just the way it is. You just have to take those things, it’s only the National League at the end of the day. We still have the promotion and there’s a long season ahead.”
“There’s a very strong breeze here today and it was always going to be a game of two halves. Overall, Carlow seemed to use the breeze a little bit better than we did. We went in two points up, but it probably wasn’t enough of a cushion against a quality side like that. We had a good few misses in the first half, which didn’t help our cause. To be fair to Carlow overall, they were the better team on the day. I thought they played the conditions very well, so fair play to them.”
Scorers – Carlow: C Ni She 0-4 (4f), M O’Neill 1-0, R Bermingham, R Bailey, R Sawyer 0-1 each. Limerick: D Murphy 0-2 (1f), I Kennelly 0-2, M MacNamara, C McGrath (f) 0-1 each.
CARLOW: N Hanley; A Carroll, A Roche, S McCullagh; R Bermingham, N Murphy, N Forde; E Hayden, R Bailey; B Nolan, R Sawyer, S Doyle; E Molloy, E Coogan, C Ni She. Subs: S Hayden for McCullagh (h-t), M O’Neill for Coogan (47), T Lyons for Nolan (52), M Townsend for E Hayden (55), E Ware for S Hayden (59).
LIMERICK: C Bateman; J McGuire, Y Lee, F Bradshaw; G Lee, C Mee, M MacNamara; R Ambrose, L Ryan; K O’Leary, D Murphy, K Heelan; E Woulfe, A O’Sullivan, I Kennelly. Subs: G Mullane for Heelan, R Browne for McGuire (both h-t), C McGrath for O’Sullivan (47), K Kennedy for Ryan (55), M Kavanagh for Woulfe (59).
Referee: Declan Carolan (Armagh).