Midleton edged out late on by Mungret in Munster junior final

Mungret St Paul’s 0-7 Midleton 0-5

So close and yet so far for Midleton as they lost out to Mungret St Pauls in the AIB Munster Junior Ladies Football Club championship final at Mallow.

This was close all through and it took two late points from Mungret, when Midleton were down to 14, to seal their win.

Two early saves from the Mungret St Pauls keeper, Carol Bateman, denied Midleton goals. The first save came from Rachel Quirke and from the resulting 45 she denied Ava McAuliffe.

At the other end, a block from Claudia Kearney denied Fiona Morrissey a goal chance.

It took until the 13th minute for the first score to arrive, with Grainne McKenna pointing from a free for Mungret. Two minutes later Lucy Cashman got Midleton off the mark when she equalised.

Midleton were unlucky not get a goal when Sadhbh Beausang played the ball to Cashman but her fisted effort came back off the post.

A free from Beausang made it 0-2 to 0-1 in Midleton’s favour before Jayne Casey scored for Mungret.

Another free from McKenna made it 0-3 to 0-2 in favour of Mungret before the post denied McAuliffe a goal for the Cork side.

Morrissey made it a two-point game as the Limerick champions led by 0-4 to 0-2 at half-time.

McAuliffe pointed from a free to put one between the sides five minutes into the second half.

It took until the 47th minute for the next score to come as Beausang had the sides level again when she pointed a free for Midleton.

But it didn’t take Mungret long to go back in front as McKenna pointed from another free to restore their advantage.

With 11 minutes to go Midleton were down to 14 when Molly Beausang was sin-binned.

To their credit, they kept going and another free from McAuliffe saw the sides level again.

Yvette Culhane, with her first touch after coming on, put Mungret back in front as the game came to life late on.

Another sub, Claire Coughlan, stretched their lead to two as they were making the extra player tell.

That proved to be the final score as the Limerick side ran out deserving winners on the day.

Scorers for Mungret St Paul’s: G McKenna 0-3 f, J Casey, F Morrissey, Y Culhane, C Coughlan 0-1 each.

Midleton: S Beausang, A McAuliffe 0-2 f each, L Cashman 0-1.

MUNGRET St PAUL’S: C Bateman; M Clancy, L Dunne, C O’Neill; S Burke, C Moloney, J Buckley; C O’Meara, A Ryan (C); E O’Rourke, G McKenna, N Crowley; J Casey, M O’Malley, F Morrissey.

Subs: A Morrissey for N Crowley (ht), N O’Keeffe for M O’Malley (34), C Coughlan for F Morrissey (44), Y Culhane for E O’Rourke (53), S Horgan for C O’Neill (60).

MIDLETON: R Power; C Kearney, D Corcoran, M Kelly; K O’Sullivan, M Beausang, S Cronin; L Wallace, A Quirke (C); A McAuliffe, S Beausang, R Quirke; M Wallace, L Cashman, L Kenneally.

Subs: A NcCarthy for R Quirke (12), J Keegan O’Connell for M Wallace (40),

Referee: Paddy Smith, Waterford.