under 18's have great league win over rivals Keady
26 Sep 2006

The Nab under 18's put in a great performance to overturn the previous loss to keady in the championship and come away with an excellent six point win over Keady.

The first ten minutes of the game indicated how the Nab stall would be laid out as they controlled the game in the Keady half of the field and should have been more than 2 points up after 10 minutes courtesy of a Mairead McClelland pointed free and Carina McKee point from play. On a Keady raid upfield Michelle Murphy was on hand to stroke the ball into the corner to leave Keady one point up against the run of play.  The Nab did not  panic however and stuck to their task and were rewarded by a further two points, both from the stick of the inform Mairead McClelland who was a constant thorn in the Keady side with a number of great forages upfield. Half time score of Keady 1-0, Ballymacnab 0-4 did not do justice to the amount of possession that the Nab had although St Brenda’s did have a goal disallowed.

The second half was more of the same as the St Brenda’s cailini continued to pressurise the Keady girls and built up a bit of space between the sides through three pointed frees from Carina McKee, the rewards of trojan work by the Nab attack which had the Keady defence under severe pressure. Substitutes Petrina Cosgrove, Amy Lavery and Aoibheann Murphy came into the fray half way through the second half and slotted in very well. Petrina showed her scoring prowess with a fine point with her first touch of the ball and followed this up soon after with a second great point.

As the match ran out of Keady’s reach, credit must be given for their battling efforts as they never game up but they were denied further scores from a resolute Nab defence and goalie, who were magnificent throughout.

This was an outstanding performance from St Brenda’s under18’s which hopefully can be maintained for the rest of the league. Every single girl gave her all. Catherine Toner was unlucky not to have stopped Keady’s goal, but was excellent throughput. The full back line of Mairead Short, Natalie Gray and Shauna Smyth were like a brick wall. The half back line of Shauna McKee, Emma McParland and Edel McParland were unbreakable.  Carina McKee (0-4) and Aileen McParland in midfield ran here, there and everywhere, making attacks and helping out defence. The half forward line of Geraldine Gray, Mairead McClelland (0-3) and Michaela King were a constant threat and really took the game to Keady while the full forward line of Aideen Canavan, Orla O’Hare and Colleen McGuigan kept Keady on their toes throughout. Substitutes Petrina Cosgrove (0-2), Amy Lavery and Aoibheann Murphy gave their all. Well done to the players who took part, the rest of the squad and to the management team.