St Ailbes narrowly lose out to O'Donovan Rossa in Munster Intermediate club final

ST Ailbes have lost out by three-points to O'Donovan Rossa of Skibbereen in the AIB Munster Ladies Football Intermediate Club Championship final in Mallow this Sunday afternoon, 0-10 to 0-7. 

In a final that the Limerick side were winning at half-time, the West Cork team showed true character in the closing minutes of the decider with Ailbes extremely unlucky not to score three of their frees in the final ten minutes to level the game. This is Skibereen's second Munster final title in-a-row after winning the junior final last year. 

Both sides started the Munster decider at a tentative pace with St Ailbes making hard work of their well earned possession. The Limerick side had a number of stray passes allowing Skibbereen to attack but it was the Limerick side that got the first score of the game through a Georgia Keane free after nine minutes. 

The West Cork team did well to get the ball straight into their full-forward line after Ailbes free but their shots at the goal missed the target with three attempts going wide in the opening minutes of the contest. 

Skibbereen captain Laura O'Mahony was a constent attacking threat as she broke through the middle of Ailbes defence, being brought down in the process allowing Éabha O'Donovan to get the equalising point from a free after 13 minutes.

This free was complimented moments later as O'Mahony fired in a cross-field kick to Fionnuala O'Driscoll for Skibereens second point of the game. 

Ailbes looked threatening in attack with Laura Nash and Meadhbh MacNamara linking up well but unfortunately Skibereen's defence stopped them from finishing off the play with a score. 

The Limerick side finally got through the strong defence with Mairead Kavanagh winning a free in front of the opposition goal with Georgia Keane slotting over the point to level the game at two points after 21 minutes. 

St Ailbes backs worked hard to get the ball up the field to their forwards with Mairead Kavanagh slotting the ball inside to Eimear Ryan, who made no mistake with the shot, pointing their first score from play. 

This one-point lead was short lived though as Éabha O'Donovan found herself in oceans of space on the other end of the field to give Skibbereen their third point of the game. 

The Limerick side extremely well on the next attack as Georgia Keane found her range to fire over a fabulous point from range to give them the advantage once again on 25 minutes.

Meadhbh MacNamara pushed out the Ailbes lead on the stroke of half-time as she weaved her way through the sea of red jerseys firing over a fantastic left footed effort to leave it 0-5 to 0-3 in their favour at the break. 

Ailbes began the second-half at a blistering pace as they looked to extended their lead with Caroline Hickey passing the ball into Kate Kennedy for their sixth point of the game. 

Skibbereen were extremely unlucky to a miss a huge goal opportunity on the next play as Lisa Harte's shot went right and wide. The West Cork side battled hard though as they moved the ball well through the hands to give Kate O'Donovan her first score of the game. 

Half-time substitute Sinead Farrell made an instant impact for Skibbereen after her introduction to the game as she got around the challenge of Niamh Ryan to put them only one-point behind Ailbes after 38 minutes. 

Aibles pace was difficult to stop at times as they worked the ball into the forward line. Caroline Hickey did well to win a free for her side in which Keane slotted over to push them to 0-7 to 0-5 ahead. 

Laura O'Mahony seemed to be the main player for Skibereen as she continued to make huge runs down the middle of the pitch. After being disposed of the ball on her first attempt the team in red did well to win the ball back through Éabha O'Donovan, with O'Mahony finishing off the play with a point. 

After five minutes of possession St Ailbes left Skibb's Aoife O'Driscoll totally free as she made no mistake with the the levelling shot on 51 minutes. 

A miss communication in the Limerick sides backs resulted in an extremely easy free for Eabha O'Donovan to fire over to gift the Skibbereen side the narrow lead. 

The young corner forward found her range in the closing minutes of the encounter as she fired over her second point from play to edge them two-points ahead of Ailbes after 56 minutes. 

All the momentum seemed to shift to the Skibbereen side after these two scores from O'Donovan as Ailbes struggled to defend the overlap players running in. O'Mahony, once again, found herself sprinting down the field to fire the ball into Fionnuala O'Driscoll to push their lead out to three, 0-10 to 0-7. 

On the other end Georgia Keane was extremely unlucky to miss three free opportunities that would have closed the deficit. 

SCORERS ST AILBES: Georgia Keane 0-4 (0-3 frees), Eimear Ryan, Meadhbh MacNamara, Kate Kennedy 0-1 each O'DONOVAN ROSSA: Éabha O'Donovan 0-4 (0-2 free), Fionnuala O'Driscoll 0-2, Kate O'Donovan, Laura O'Mahony, Aoife O'Driscoll 0-1 each

ST AILBES: Brid Madigan, Aoife Dalton, Joanne McGuire, Emma Donnelly, Meadhbh MacNamara, Niamh Ryan (C), Katie Heelan, Caroline Hickey, Órla Ryan, Sinead McNamara, Mairead Kavanagh, Laura Nash, Georgia Keane, Kate Kennedy, Eimear Ryan.SUBS: Ciara Ryan for J McGuire (Half-Time), Dearbhla Egan for S McNamara (Half-Time)

O'DONOVAN ROSSA: Ella Hayes, Michelle Donellan, Aoife Whooley, Allie Tobin, Emer McCarthy, Sarah Hurley, Lisa Harte, Laura O'Mahony (C), Triona Murphy, Jessica Beechinor, Kate O'Donovan, Fiona Leonard, Éabha O'Donovan, Fionnuala O'Driscoll, Mallaidh O'Neill. SUBS: Sinead Farrell for T Murphy (Half-Time), Aoife O'Driscoll for M O'Neill (48 minutes), Emily Byrne for F O'Driscoll (58 minutes)

REFEREE: David Grogan (Tipperary)