Battling Limerick make it back-to-back National Camogie League wins with victory over Offaly

“SIXTEEN scores on a tough heavy pitch is a good return. We just focused on holding our shape in the conditions,” was boss Dave Deady's take on Limerick's senior camogie team making it two National League Division 1B wins out of two with their 1-15 to 2-9 victory over Offaly at The Faithful Fields, Kilcormac on Saturday afternoon.

Getting a far better return from their strenghts than in their opening victory over Down, Limerick bounced back twice from conceding goals twice against the run of play before the break to outgun hosts Offaly on their home patch with a match-winning burst of scores midway through the second half.

The big difference between the sides lay in the ability to find the posts from play and, led by Rebecca Delee's storming contribution at the centre of the attack, Limerick had more options up front than their opponents who relied heavily on the gamecraft of Mairéad Teehan and the free-taking of Clodagh Leahy.

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Despite seeing an early lead of four points being turned into a deficit of three coming up to interval, Limerick never lost their belief that this was a game there for the taking as long as they kept doing the things that worked for them.

The heavy drizzle made control of balance and the sliotar difficult but Limerick adapted better to the conditions from the throw-in to pin the Faithful girls back into their own half.

Limerick looked to have established a stranglehold on primary possession as Delee, Laura Southern, Donna Kenny's free and Delee again all found the target for a lead that could have been more than four points had Emer Reynolds not pounced from her line to stop Delee's shot on her goals.

However, the complexion of the game then changed utterly in an instant when Offaly's first raid saw Teehan take the pass in from the right and pick her spot in the corner of the net.

Not only did the bolt from the blue rattle the visitors as Teehan followed up with an equalising point and, after Kenny and Leahy swapped frees on the quarter mark, but Limerick were then zapped again when Teehan cimbed highest to grab a long free and then turned to beat the challenge to rattle home her second goal.

However, the hosts then missed two frees to add meat to their lead, giving Limerick the opportunity to regain their shape. In the run up to half-time, two pointed frees from Kenny and a Delee score tied up the scores at 2-2 to 0-8 at the break.

Limerick could have had a spectacular restart if Reynolds hadn't blocked Sarah O'Brien's whip on her goals but play then settled down in a tit-for-tat sequence of points.

Leahy converted two frees replying twice to Kenny's and then punishing another foul after O'Brien struck from play.

However, after another Kenny free put the Shannonsiders ahead again, the logjam finally broke when the rising intensity of their movement from deep led to O'Brien sneaking in behind the last line of the defence to whip home off a long free from a tight angle.

Another Kenny pointed free had Limerick leading further on the three-quarter mark but, as the heavy sod was taking its toll on stamina, the Midlanders got the first return from the rash of substitutions to pull back with points from Grace Teehan, Allie Butler and Leahy.

However, when Limerick reorganised around their own replacements, points from Kenny and Delee left Offaly looking for the goal to save their afternoon. However, the best they could draw from their opponents' resolute defence was Rachel Brennan's added time point.

SCORERS: LIMERICK: Donna Kenny 0-9 (8 frees), Rebecca Delee 0-4, Sarah O'Brien 1-1, Laura Sothern 0-1; OFFALY: Mairéad Teehan 2-1 (0-1 free), Clodagh Leahy 0-5 (4 frees), Grace Teehan, Allie Butler, Rachel Brennan 0-1 each.

LIMERICK: Sarah Gillane; Ciara, Shauna Cunningham, Áine Foley; Sophie O'Callaghan, Stephanie Woulfe, Eimear O'Donovan; Ailbhe Larkin, Orlaith Kelleher; Donna Kenny, Rebecca Delee, Lizzie Boylan; Laura Southern, Dearbhla Egan, Sarah O'Brien. SUBS: Orlaith Hession for Dearbhla Egan (half-time), Emily O'Halloran for Áine Foley (45 mins), Ellie Woulfe for Ciara O'Riordan (47 mins), Ciara Curtin for Laura Southern (47 mins), Teresa Dore for Sophie O'Callaghan (48 mins).

OFFALY: Emer Reynolds; Aoife Liffey, Áine Byrne, Megan King; Orlaith Phelan, Aisling Brennan, Una Kilmartin; Emma Buggy, Ciara Maher; Allie Butler, Mairéad Teehan, Ellen Regan; Clodagh Leahy, Rachel Brennan, Fianait Dooley. SUBS: Róisín Kinsella for Ciara Maher (half-time), Grace Teehan for Ellen Regan (half-time), Katie O'Connell for Róisín Kinsella (47 mins), Karla Mannion for Emma Buggy (53 mins).

REFEREE: Justin Heffernan (Wexford).