Glanmire goals see them retain Senior B ladies football title

Glanmire 2-8 Clonakilty 0-8

Glanmire retained their Cork Credit Unions Senior B ladies football title after their win over Clonakilty at MTU on Sunday.

The defending champions got the perfect and built up a strong lead early on. But full credit to Clon they came back at them in the second half and had the first three scores to put only three between them at that point.

Glanmire withstood the fightback to emerge deserving winners as overall they were the better team. They will go on and defend their Munster title, which they also won last year.

Glanmire took the lead in the second minute when Orlaith Roche pointed and it got even better for them from the restart.

They regained possession and Niamh McAllen burst forward to score the game’s opening goal.

The same player was on target again as Glanmire raced into a 1-2 to no score lead after three minutes.

Clonakilty got off the mark in the seventh minute when Katie O’Driscoll scored before Glanmire got their second goal.

The goal was unusual as Olivia McAllen drove forward and her fisted pass for a point came back off the crossbar.

She caught the rebound herself, and this time found the back of the net, to make it 2-2 to 0-1.

Síofra Pattwell pulled a point back for Clon from a free and Kate O’Donovan added their third as they started to come more into the game.

Glanmire thought they had a third goal when Roche scored but it was ruled out for a square ball.

Clon’s first goal chance came after 23 minutes, but Pattwell’s effort went just wide of the post.

Niamh McAllen added two points for her side as they led by 2-4 to 0-3.

Late on O’Driscoll scored for Clon to narrow the game to the two goals as they trailed by 2-4 to 0-4 at half-time.

O’Driscoll pulled a point back for Clon and she added another, to make it 2-4 to 0-6 after 35 minutes.

Clon were enjoying their best spell of the game and when she O’Driscoll added another point there was only three between the sides, 2-4 to 0-7.

Glanmire had another goal chance when Greene played Oliva McAllen in but Martina O’Brien saved superbly to deny her.

Greene pointed a free for Glanmire after 49 minutes, their first score of the second half to put four between them.

Pattwell replied for Clon, but Glanmire finished strongly to secure the title.

Roche added a point, with Evie Twomey and Oliva McAllen all scoring late on to see them retain their title and turn their attention to also trying to do the same in Munster.

Scorers for Glanmire: N McAllen 1-3, O McAllen 1-1, O Roche 0-2, L Greene, Evie Twomey 0-1.

Clonakilty: K O’Driscoll 0-5, S Pattwell 0-2 (f), K O’Donovan 0-1.

GLANMIRE: A Carey; Ellen Twomey, E Baker, G Cashman; K O’Connor, M Barry, C O’Donovan; O McAllen, A O’Mahony; A Treacy, N McAllen, A McCarthy; A McAllen, L Greene, O Roche.

Subs: A Fitzgerald for K O’Connor (43), Evie Twomey for A McAllen (49), Ava McCarthy for Ally McCarthy (51), K Goggin for N McAllen (58).

CLONAKILTY: M O’Brien; E O’Sullivan, S Callanan, M O’Donovan; R Shanley, A Hutchings, N Kennedy; K O’Donovan, J Quinn; M Barrett, K O’Driscoll, M Condon; S Pattwell, S O’Donovan, A O’Flynn Meade.

Sub: L Daly for A O’Flynn Meade (51).

Referee: Deirdre Cronin, Naomh Fionnbarra.