Wednesday 28th February 2024
Allianz Cumann na mBunscol Thír Eoghain held Heat 5 of its 2024 Girls Indoor Football competition in the Cookstown Leisure Centre. The seven schools who attended this heat were:
- Holy Trinity P.S. Cookstown
- St Joseph's P.S. Galbally
- Mary's P.S. Dunamore
- St Mary's P.S. Pomeroy
- St Patrick's Donaghmore
- St Patrick's Mullinahoe
- Peter's P.S. Moortown
With our seven teams present the schools were drawn out of a hat into two groups.
Section ‘A’ featured: St. Peter's P.S. Moortown, St Patrick's P.S. Donaghmore, St. Mary's P.S. Dunamore and St Joseph's P.S. Galbally.
Section 'B' was made up of the three remaining teams: St Patrick's P.S. Mullinahoe, St Mary's P.S. Pomeroy, Holy Trinity P.S. Cookstown.
GROUP GAMES
The group stages were very tight with the first two games resulting in draws as the teams couldn’t be separated. St Marys Dunamore played St Joseph’s Galbally in the opener and despite both teams creating chances they could not find a winner. Eabha McGurk had a great game for the Dunamore girls and Marianne Nugent had a great game in goals for Galbally making a number of brilliant saves to keep the score level.
The second game featured St Patrick’s Donaghmore and St Peters Moortown. It followed a similar pattern with both teams matching each other well. Amelia Johnson was excellent for Donaghmore and was well supported by the equally talented Cliodhna Heatherington. Moortown were inspired by the two Conlons, Siofra and the very dangerous Grace who stood out in all their games. Despite the attacking talent on display the game finished a draw.
The first team to get a win on the board was St Marys Pomeroy who got the better of a very strong St Patrick’s Mullinahoe side. Pomeroy were a very skilful and energetic side inspired by Cara McGoldrick who was a joy to watch in all her games, a very skilful and creative footballer. For St Patrick’s Rhiannon Wylie had a great game and created a number of great openings with some very strong attacking play. The very pacy and energetic Ellie-Mae McGurk ably supported her with some great attacks and turnovers, but despite their hard work Pomeroy came out on top.
In game four St Joseph’s Galbally Patrick’s played their neighbours St Patrick’s Donaghmore. Despite the best efforts of Amelia Johnson for Donaghmore the Galbally girls came out on top with Molly Kane proving to be a real handful in attack with a good eye for goal.
Game five saw Holy Trinity PS Cookstown up against St Patrick’s Mullinahoe. This was a very tight affair with both teams’ defences on top. Juliette Devlin and Rebecca Harte were resolute in defence putting in a brilliant performance. They had to be at their best as Jasmine Soares looked very dangerous in front of goal every time she was on the ball. Good work from Ayla Beggs created an opportunity for Soares who levelled the game for Cookstown. With time running out it looked like a draw would be the final result but a turnover from Katie McCracken gave Riannon Wylie the chance to win the game.
Game six saw St Peters Moortown up against the improving St Marys Dunamore. Cara Tibbot played well for Moortown as did Grace Conlon again but the power and athleticism of the Dunamore girls was beginning to show, with Rionach Heaney making some excellent runs from deep and Olivia Mulgrew looking very sharp in front of goal.
Game seven saw St Joseph’s Galbally and St Peters Moortown play each other. Moortown got of to a great start but again Marianne Nugent stood firm in goals making a number of great saves. Siofra Conlon battled well in midfield but the Galbally girls, especially Seanin Gillespie, were playing some great fast attacking football that gave them the opportunities to pull ahead.
Game 8 matched St Mary’s Pomeroy and Holy Trinity primary. Pomeroy had their best game of the day and played some brilliant fast attacking football, Katie Breen and Cara McGoldrick were excellent. Holy Trinity gave it everything as they did in every game, Anna Leigh Reid had a great game for the Cookstown Girls, but they couldn’t get another score to close the gap.
The final group game was St Patrick’s Donaghmore and St Marys Dunamore. This was a very tight game with nothing between the two very well matched teams. In a must win game for Donaghmore but despite a massive effort from all the girls they just couldn’t get that final winning score that would have put them through to the next round.
SEMI FINALS
After the group games were over the unbeaten St Joseph’s Galbally topped Group A with St. Mary's P.S. Dunamore in second place. In group 2 an unbeaten St Mary’s Pomeroy topped the group with St. Patrick’s Mullinahoe Ardboe finishing runners up.
This gave us our Semi Final pairings.
In Our First Semi-Final St Joseph’s Galbally met St Patrick’s Mullinahoe. This was a very tight and cagy affair with both sides creating chances but were unable to finish them. Galbally were able to get themselves in front with the opening goal and they doubled their lead shortly after. The Ardboe girls responded bravely and launched a series of attacks that finally lead to their first goal. After this it looked like they would manage an equaliser, but the Galbally girls battled hard to hold them out and earn their place in the final.
The second Semi-final paired the two teams that looked like they could be the strongest. St Joseph's P.S. Galbally and St Mary's P.S. Pomeroy. This game had everything great blocks, high catches and some brilliant glimpses of individual skill. Both keepers were at their best and made several saves. Pomeroy took the lead and were playing some great football but Dunamore responded from two down to take the game into extra time. In extra time the Dunamore girls showed great patience to keep the ball and try to create the winning score and with time running out they found a way and hit the winner to take themselves through into the final for the second year in a row.
FINAL
The final was the best game of the day. It was a very close game with both sets of girls giving it everything. With the intensity of tackling and the pressure both sides were putting on getting a goal was proving to be very difficult. So tightly matched were the two teams we found ourselves going into extra time again to find a winner. In this period of extra time the Dunamore girls seemed to find another burst of energy from somewhere and through some clever play were able to find the winning score to break the resistance of a superb Galbally team who gave their all in what was a thrilling game.
Dunamore Principal, and team manager on the day Mrs Ward couldn’t hide her delight as her girls won this very competitive section for the second year running. They have now booked themselves a place in the Tyrone Girls Indoor Co. Final on Thursday 7th of March in MUSA. We wish these gifted lads well.
Ádh mór oraibh!
A huge word of thanks goes to all the schools and teachers involved today. As well as complementing them on their performances we need to complement them on their behaviour and attitude. They were all a credit to their schools and families and the Heat today was a pleasure to run.
Finally, a word of thanks to our referee Brian McGinn for doing all our games today and to the friendly staff of the Cookstown Leisure Centre for helping us ensure the heat ran smoothly.
Please check out our pictures below.
To all concerned, Go raibh míle maith agaibh!
@AllianzIreland
