Clinical Limerick ease past Kerry in TG4 Munster LGFA senior 'B' championship

CLINICAL Limerick have defeated Kerry 'B' 1-16 to 1-4 in their Round 2 TG4 Munster LGFA Senior 'B' Championship fixture in Mick Neville Park, Rathkeale on Friday night.

Home side Limerick led their Kerry visitors 0-9 to 1-2 at half-time in their round robin fixture.

Limerick had suffered a last gasp, 0-6 to 1-4, defeat to Clare in their opening fixture five days ago.

READ MORE: All You Need to Know: Limerick v Waterford in Munster senior hurling championship

Limerick will finish off their round-robin campaign against Cork 'B' on May 11. The two teams that finish in first and second place will compete in the Munster ‘B’ final.

Limerick are aiming to win the Munster ‘B’ Championship for the second year in-a-row.

“Job done, nothing spectacular, big improvement on the Clare game,” was joint-manager Sean Kiely's reaction to Limerick's  comprehensive win over Kerry's second string under Friday evening's glorious sunset.

“We got the chance to introduce some new players who rose to the occasion and are now giving us some more selection headaches.”

Deepening his squad has been one of Kiely and joint manager Mike Quilligan's priorities, after maintaining their Division Three status in the National League, are hoping to go one better than closing-round defeats in the past few years as they prepare for this season's All-Ireland Junior Championship.

On Friday night's display, while not as fluent as he would have liked, they will have been satisfied by their extended spells of pressure on their opponents that had Limerick on the road to victory long before the break despite featuring two players making their debuts in their starting lineup and a few more whose appearance in the green jersey are in the low single figures.

When they turned it on, Limerick played with an intensity that the Kerry girls struggled to handle, closing off any threats on their posts and transferring possession swiftly in to attack.

However, once they reflected their dominance on the scoreboard, they lost their direction on a few occasions but found it again whenever Kerry threated a sustained recovery.

A final round victory over Cork in the weekend after next will qualify them for the final and a possible chance to put right their dramatic, last gasp setback against the Banner.

Although they monopolised the opening five minutes, Limerick failed to score until Georgia Keane's shot on the run from a tight angle found the target but, after Tara Geoghegan's follow-up free for the home side, the Kingdom's first attack from the resulting kickout led to Gillian Musgrove grabbing their first score as well as their second from a free.

Suddenly brought back to level terms against the run of play, the hosts found their focus again for Keane to restore their lead and Caoimhe Macnamara to double it by the quarter mark.

They would have been further ahead had Aoife Morrissey's low shot not flashed across the face of the goals, but Limerick kept up the pressure to draw points from Keane, Geoghegan, with a free, and from play and Keane again.

However, as they closed in on half-time, Limerick's progress was rudely interrupted Máirín Duffy's long pass over the defence from a rare Kerry attack was collected on the run by Clara Daly whose low shot flashed into the far corner of Carol Bateman's net before Macnamara responded just before the break to leave her side leading 0-9 to 1-2.

Limerick's restart was steady rather than spectacular as their relentless attacks led to sub Karen O'Leary pointing twice.

The scores were followed by Geoghegan's pointed free and Róisín Ambrose doubling the margin to eight points on the three-quarter hour.

The advantage could have been greater had Aoife Looney not spread herself across Tara Geoghegan bearing down on goal.

Amy O'Sullivan's point off Kerry's first meaningful offensive of the second half halted the run of scores but, after Looney again came to the Kingdom's rescue to block Ambrose's goal-bound shot, Limerick pumped up the scoreboard pressure again as Maedhbh McNamara found the target.

Any remaining doubt about the outcome disappeared when Morrissey ran onto the long delivery off a slick move from defence to blast to the net.

O'Sullivan replied with her second point as Limerick eased into the closing minutes but they managed to find another Maedhbh McNamara point, another Looney save off Ambrose and Keane picking off her fifth score from play off the final move of the game.

SCORERS: LIMERICK: Georgia Keane 0-5, Tara Geoghegan 0-4 (4 frees), Aoife Morrissey 1-0, Caoimhe Macnamara, Karen O'Leary, Maedhbh McNamara 0-2 each, Róisín Ambrose 0-1; KERRY: Clara Daly 1-0, Gillian Musgrave (1 free), Amy O'Sullivan 0-2 each.

LIMERICK: Carol Bateman; Ciara Hynes, Joanne McGuire, Róisín Browne; Ellie Woulfe, Lucy O'Brien, Maedhbh McNamara; Grace Mullane, Orla Ryan; Aoife Morrissey, Georgia Keane, Éadaoin Crowe; Caoimhe Macnamara, Tara Geoghegan, Róisín Ambrose . SUBS: Yvonne Lee for Ciara Hynes (half-time), Maedhbh McNamara for Orla Ryan (half-time), Karen O'Leary for Éadaoin Crowe (half-time), Cathy Mee for Lucy O'Brien (44 minutes).

KERRY: Aoife Looney; Laura Reilly, Kellie McGrath, Lily Kearins; Aobha Quinn, Kiera Furey, Seodhla O'Donovan; Orlagh Clifford, Kathryn Ryan; Kayleigh McGlashan, Amy O'Sullivan, Clara Daly; Emma O'Sullivan, Gillian Musgrove, Máirín Duffy. SUBS: Gemma Kearney for Emma O'Sullivan (42 minutes), Brenna O'Neill for Laura Reilly (42 minutes), Tara Enright for Lily Kearns (55 minutes), Rebecca Kenny for Kathryn Ryan (55 minutes), Orlaith McKenna for Máirín Duffy (55 minutes), Alisha Dennehy for Aobha Quinn (55 minutes), Aideen Cronin for Mollie McGrath (59 minutes), Clodagh Murray for Keira Furey (59 minutes), Caoimhe Burke for Clara Daly (59 minutes).

REFEREE: Justin Murphy (Cork).