Peamount pip Orchard in Premier
PEAMOUNT UNITED…………………………2
CHERRY ORCHARD………………………….0
By Daire Walsh
FIRST-half goals courtesy of Eimear Flood and Eve Maloney helped Peamount United claim a deserved victory over Cherry Orchard in a Metropolitan Girls League Under 14 Premier clash at Greenogue on Sunday.
As a result of this success, Peamount preserve their 100 per cent record in this competition. In addition to the constant threat posed by Flood and Maloney, Ana Kelly was a livewire presence on the right-wing for the Newcastle outfit.
Despite having just one win to their name in the league standings – an emphatic 6-1 triumph against Verona on October 14 – Orchard can take plenty of positives from their performance. Thi Kearney was a steady presence on the left-side of their defence, while netminder Sophie Doherty produced a host of outstanding saves during the course of the tie.
Eager to make home advantage count, Peamount immediately forced their Ballyfermot counterparts on the back-foot. Doherty turned away a Katie Sherlock effort inside the opening minute before doing likewise off a Flood strike.
Orchard had their own moments in possession with centre-forward Amber Cullen providing plenty of industry in attack. Kelly’s influence on the game was growing at the opposite end, however, and a Peamount inevitably arrived on 14 minutes.
Flood was picked out in space at the end of a patient move and she hammered a powerful shot to the roof of the Orchard net. This looked set to be a catalyst for a dominant Peamount display and following a near miss moments earlier, Maloney swiftly bagged a second for the hosts.
She was combining to good effect with Sherlock in the Peamount front line and when an opportunity arose inside the Orchard box, she expertly fired to the bottom left-hand corner. This threw down the gauntlet to the visitors, who previously lost out to Peamount on home soil at the beginning of October.
They certainly weren’t lacking endeavour and Danielle Ryan almost got on the end of an enticing cross in the 27th-minute. The skilful Kelly cut inside off the right-flank past the half-hour mark, but Doherty was once again equal to her final attempt.
While Cherry Orchard were still left with a mountain to climb, a two-goal interval deficit was far from insurmountable. In an effort to work their way back into contention, they pushed up on the Peamount back-three after the restart.
This caused some anxious moments for their opponents and when Cullen intercepted a pass out of defence on 45 minutes, it looked like United custodian was set to be pressed into service. Yet, much to the relief of the Peamount bench, her attempted through ball to Ryan was blocked off in the nick time.
Without cutting loose to the same extent as the opening-quarter, Peamount continued to offer the greater threat in the final-third. Kelly forced another low save out of Doherty and Aoibhe Fleming’s long-distance drive stung the hands of the reliable shotstopper midway through the half.
Kelly maintained her relentless pursuit of a third Peamount goal, which would have eliminated the prospect of a dramatic Cherry Orchard fightback. There was simply no way past Doherty in the second period, though, as she turned behind another fine strike by the lively winger.
In general, the Orchard rearguard were much improved on the resumption. Nevertheless, Fleming and Freya Healy were agonisingly wide off subsequent Peamount attacks.
Still, Flood and Maloney’s earlier contributions were more than enough to get the home team over the line.
PEAMOUNT UNITED: S O’Connor; M Kadlgou, C Connaughton, K McQuillan; A Fleming, J Giles; A Kelly, E Flood, J Fitzgerald; K Sherlock, E Maloney. Subs: M McGauley, G Connors, F Healy.
CHERRY ORCHARD: S Doherty; N Coombe, T Kearney, E O’Shea; A Ellis, N McDermott; S Winders, A Carrick, S Callaghan; D Ryan, A Cullen. Subs: J Flemming, A Byrne, M Bissett.