News Archive

Galway Progress in style!

18 January 2009

Galway 2nds: 2

Scorers: G. Black, D. Hatton

UCD 2nds: 1

Galway 2nds progressed to the next round of Irish Junior Cup in style as the over came the students of UCD at a wind swept Dangan. Having already dispatched of Pembroke Wanderers in the previous round Galway were briming of confidence as they stepped on the pitch, they were also boosted by the return of Irish underage international Freddie Timmins, as well as Eavan Murphy who has return to the club after her sabbatical in France. The side were also lift by the last minute inclusion of Alison Hynes to replace the sick Michelle Carey, Hynes who is make a welcome return to following an extended absence lifted the entire teams confidence. Galway 2nds began the match brightly and quickly began to extert pressure on UCD defence who well marshelled by under age international keeper Stella Davis in goal. Following some excellent work by Deirdre Hatton down the left hand side of the pitch a ball fell to the Galway right midfielder Grainne Black who after a failed attempt duely dispatched the rebound to hand the Connacht team an early lead. Unfortunately for Galway the goal seemed to be a springboard for UCD as they lifted their game, as the UCD pressure came upon Galway Captain Grainne Murphy mounted stern defence ably assisted in her task by Lousie Thorton, Siobhain Hammon. The consistent pressure from UCD eventually drew reward as from a resulting short corner routine UCD managed to penetrating keeper Tara Browne's goal. This seemed to reinvigorate Galway as retook the initiative in game  repeatedly breaking forward and causing consistent problems for the UCD defence. In midfield Christine Rabbitte dominated, pulling the strings at the heart of the midfield for Galway, while Louise Conlon, Niamh Walsh and Roseanne Regan. In fact the best chance of the first half fell to Regan but unfortunately unforeseen events prevented her from capitalising on her oppertunity. So the sides when into half-time level, Galway however were definitely the happier of the two sides but had certainly spurned the best chances of the half. Following the half-time interval coach Richard Malone introduced Freddie Timmins and this had an immediate affect as her precision distribution allow Galway to launch a foray of attacks against the UCD defence. It was not until mid-way thorough the second half Galway broke forward as Louise Conlon bore down on the UCD goal, Conlon showed great presence of mind as she squared the ball to the industrious Deirdre Hatton who calmly dispatched the pass to put Galway two up and secured their passage to thorough to the quater finals of the Irish Junior Cup. This is a remarkable achievement for the seconds as this was the stage reached last year by the Galway 1st team, this is surely a testament to how far the seconds have come in 12 months. They head into the quarterfinals brimming with confidence and hoping for a home draw.