Desperately unlucky Kildare ladies lose out by a point to Mayo

Mayo 3-4

Kildare 0-12

Kildare Ladies now hang from a precipice after coming inches short of tossing Mayo off a cliff.

With seconds remaining, Leah McGovern wielded the executioner’s axe over a winless, desperate Mayo who needed a draw to avoid guaranteed relegation. McGovern’s shot went straight for the black dot but dipped onto the crossbar, and bounced into Mayo hands.

Game over.

Mayo were saved not by the bell, but by the ‘ping’ of a size four bouncing off a sheet of metal and into a friendly pair of gloves. Kildare could have gotten a result here. Even a draw would have condemned Mayo and moved the Lilywhites four points off the relegation zone. Instead, Pat Sullivan’s charges must get at least a draw when they meet Tyrone - who need a win to avoid falling straight back down to Division 2.

But let that not do down a decent Kildare performance. The Lilywhites showed great persistence and doggedness to close a five-point half-time gap against a team with a slight breeze behind them.

Mayo, after shooting 3-3 in the first half, scored once in the second half. The hosts’ inability to translate good use of possession into scores hurt them when Kildare came creeping back.

The excellent Nessa Dooley hit five points while Róisín Byrne tested the Mayo defence with her pace all afternoon.

Aoife Murnane, who was due to start but only came on in the 40th minute, missed a game-winning chance when she blazed a shout inches over Mayo’s crossbar.

For all the positives, it’s the aforementioned ifs and buts that haunted the Lilywhites all the way home - and will potentially haunt them for weeks to come.

“They are a brilliant side,” Mayo midfielder Aoife Geraghty said afterwards. “They had their shots, we missed a couple in the second half though that we wouldn’t be too happy with.”

Mayo, by their own admission, were far better in the first half.

After Molly Aspel and Nessa Dooley (a free) opened the guests’ account, Mayo bit back with an opportunistic goal.

Mayo had just been dispossessed during an assault on the Kildare square when the ball fell to Sinéad Walsh, who had the green flag up in a split second.

It was the first of 2-4 for the MacHale Rovers woman, who brought her tally for the season to 7-21 and was, yet again, Mayo’s standout player.

Kildare’s score-taking was exceptional in the first half. In the face of a physical, highly efficient Mayo team, Nessa Dooley, Róisín Byrne and Aoife Rattigan kept the Lilywhites within touching distance with some beautifully taken scores.

But thanks to stellar showings from Walsh, her captain Danielle Caldwell, Aoife Geraghty, Erin Murray, Lucy Wallace and Saoirse Lally, Mayo began to pull away.

Another poacher’s goal from Walsh - which came from an unfortunate a spill by Mary Hulgarine - followed by an Annie Gough penalty, helped Mayo to a 3-3 0-7 half-time lead.

Sinéad Walsh opened the scoring in the second half, right before their guests struck five points in fifteen minutes.

Kildare had the chances the win it, they had the chance to draw it. But they lost it. That’s how fine the margins are in Division 1. Only a win will keep them there this weekend.

MAYO: J Gawalkiewicz; L Wallace, C Durkan, S El Massry; D Caldwell, J Mortimer, S Lally; H Reape, A Geraghty; C Doherty, E Murray, B Hession; A Gough (1-0, 1 pen), C Keane, S Walsh (2-4, 2f) Subs: E Brennan for El Masry (14, inj.), El Masry for Brennan (28), L Hanley for Mortimer (43), C Whyte for Reape (48), S Delaney for Hession (48), N Mooney for Doherty (52), M Cannon for Keane (54)

KILDARE: M Hulgraine; R Sargent, L Lenehan, E Wheeler; M Doherty, L Dunlea, M Aspel (0-1); C Sullivan, G Wheeler; C Moran, E Dowling (0-1, 1f) N Dooley (0-5, 3f); A Rattigan (0-1), L Shaw (0-1), R Byrne (0-2) Subs: A Murnane (0-1) for G Wheeler (35), L Doran for Shaw (46) A Mahon for E Wheeler (46), A Prizeman for Dowling (49), L McGovern for Moran (54)

REFEREE: A Clogher (Roscommon)

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