Kildare camogie players fall far short against experienced Armagh side

The Very National Camogie League Division 3A encounter was a top of the table clash between Kildare and Armagh and it was the visitors who left Kildare GAA Headquarters on Saturday last with a thirteen point victory.

Played in a constant downpour and a bitterly cold breeze conditions were difficult but it was the girls from the Orchard County who settled best and after four minutes Katie Comiskey and Leanne Donnelly had them two ahead.

Opening round wins over Tyrone and Mayo respectively it was envisaged that this would be a close encounter.

 started to gain more possession around the middle and a solid have back line laid the foundation for two Aoife McDermott scores to level it after 12 minutes. Ella Copeland and Leah Sutton delivering long passes to the Naas full forward.
Rachel Merry, who finished with 1-3 and Sinead Quinn opened a two point lead again as we entered the second quarter.
Roisin Forde did find space from the puckout and her pass found half forward Niamh Hegarty who split the posts.

The closing 9 minutes saw Armagh hit four in a row through Jennifer Curry, the influential Ellie McKee and full forward Eimear Smyth to lead 0-8 to 0-3 at the break.

The second half was always going to be a struggle for Joe Quaid's side as they faced into the stiff breeze.
Leanne Donnelly and a Rachael Merry free extended the Armagh lead to seven and it was hard to see a Kildare comeback.

Despite seven goals on the opening day against Tyrone their weren't any easy opportunities against a solid Armagh defence.
Aoife McDermott pointed her third on 38 to reduce the gap to six, but straight from the restart Eimear Smyth found Rachael Merry and her low shot gave Eimear Stirling no chance in the Kildare goal.

Kildare started without regular midfielder Hannah Davis and her introduction after 37 seemed to lift the Kildare side.
Leah Sutton pointed a long range free but again Merry responded with a neat score from 30 metres.
The fight was draining from Kildare and on 46 Sinead Quinn burst through three Kildare defenders to shoot high into the net.

The closing ten minutes saw Merry hit her third before Ella Copeland responded with a free for Kildare.Armagh did have the last say and right on full time Jennifer Curry hit her second of the day as the Orchard girls ran out convincing 2-13 to 0-6 winners.

A tough day at the office for Kildare and on a horrible day for a game they will be anxious to rectify the result when they visit Mayo next weekend.
On this showing Armagh will be favourites to reach the knockout stages.

KILDARE: Eimear Stirling, Sadhbh Horgan, Maria Doyle, Niamh Krahn, Shauna Mulligan, Lea Sutton 0-1 (1 free), Ella Copeland 0-1 (1 free), Roisin Forde, Niamh Jenkins,Niamh Hegarty 0-1, Sinead O Brien, Orla Carragher, Caoithionn Hallissy, Aoife McDermott 0-3, Ally Morgan. Subs: Hannah Davis for Sinead O Brien (37 minutes); Sorcha Dolan for Shauna Mulligan (49 minutes).

ARMAGH: Ciarrai Devlin, Siodhna Woods, Tierra Maguire, Nicola Woods, Gemma McCann, Aisling Harvey, Cara Crilly, Sinead Quinn 1-1, Leanne Donnelly 0-2, Jennifer Curry 0-2, Michelle McGuigan, Ellie McKee 0-2, Katie Comiskey 0-1, Eimear Smyth 0-1, Rachel Merry 1-4 (1 free). Subs: Caoimhe O'Kane for Sinead Quinn (50 minutes); Aoife Crilly for Michelle McGuigan (53 minutes); Catherine Beagan for Rachel Merry (56 minutes).

REFEREE: Enda Loughnane.

After Match Reaction

The strange thing about it, said Joe Quaid, Kildare camogie manager after the defeat by Armagh in the Round 2 of The Very National Camogie League, Division 3A, was “what we were down at half-time, only five points and I actually think that while we lost the second half by more, we played better in the second half than we did in the first.

“Look, Armagh are a seasonted team, around a long time, and I only found out at half-time they had Jenny O'Leary, ex-Cork player was playing with them, sure it was no wonder we couldn't keep up with her but the performance of our girls in the second half we were actually delighted with; we have so many young players, they got hits today they never got before; it was an education for them.”

“We asked them at half-time to get stuck in and they did; we said we were not worried about the final score and they gave it their all.”

Desite the result Joe was upbeat saying “we go to Mayo next week and if we win there we are in the semi-final; so that's what we are looking at; we will do a good recovery week; we won't be doing a huge amount of field sessions with them; despite the scoreline in Tyrone it was a hard physical match and next week will be three games in a row; we will try and get them right, both physically and mentally; I think mentally they are in a good place.

“This is a huge learning curve for these girls, a massive learning curve; we have a half-back line of three converted forwards, who I though they were outstanding; we have two girls there doing their Leving Cert this year so a very, very young side.”