Goal-hungry St Conleth’s make it two wins from two in Laois LGFA Senior Football Championship

As the old saying goes goals wins games, this was certainly the case in Courtwood on Tuesday night as St Conleth’s ran in seven goals against Timahoe to secure their second victory of the campaign.

The hosts ability to take their goal chances was the difference as their ruthless nature up front won the game for St Conleth’s.
Timahoe did make a spirited effort in the second-half, but couldn’t recover from the concession of conceding goals.

St Conleth’s got off to a dream start with their first attack with Emma Lawlor kicking off the goal-scoring spree by finding the back of the net. The response from Timahoe was pretty good and they hit back with two points of their own through Mo Nerney and Aisling Quigley.

Marie Byrne and Aoife Cummins got two scores in a row for the victors as their pace was causing all sorts of bother for Timahoe. Niamh Dundon added another point for Timahoe and they were right back in the game after the bad start. It didn’t last long, however, as St Conleth’s struck for their second goal. This time, Laois star Shifra Havill found the back of the net with only seven minutes on the clock. Naomi Luttrell and Nerney traded points, but the writing was on the wall at this stage as Timahoe struggled to live with St Conleth’s.

The third goal came soon after, courtesy of Claire Fox, leaving the scores at 3-3 to 0-4, and it was a long way back for Timahoe. Quigley added a point for her side, but disaster struck again as Marie Byrne crashed in the fourth goal of the game to finish the game as a contest before halftime. Byron, Havill and Byrne added points before the whistle to leave the scores 4-8 to 0-6.

Timahoe needed to get a quick start to get back into this one, but again St Conleth’s got the first score of the half from the impressive Byron, who was immense operating from the half forward line.

Timahoe did battle hard and were having a good spell in the early stages of the second-half and would score the next 1-2 without reply, with the goal coming from Katie Donoghue, who struck the crossbar and was deflected.

There was a sniff of a comeback on the cards, but the slight glimmer of hope was over when Havill struck for goal number five to knock Timahoe’s comeback on the head.

Timahoe again responded with three more points through Quigley and Donoghue, who pointed two frees. But the game was up midway through the second half, with Conleth’s at their ease and were picking off scores at will.

They would score two more goals before the end through Sinead Coffey, along with two points from Byron, as St Conleth’s ran out worthy winners.

Final Score

St Conleth’s 7-11

Timahoe 1-12

SCORERS – St Conleth’s: Shifra Havill 2-1, Marie Byrne 1-2, Aoibhe Byron 0-5 (0-1 free), Sinead Coffey 1-1, Claire Fox, Emma Lawlor 1-0 each, Naomi Luttrell 0-2, Aoife Cummins 0-1. Timahoe: Katie Donoghue 1-3 (0-2 frees), Mo Nerney 0-4 ( 0-3 frees), Aisling Quigley 0-3, Niamh Dundon 0-2.

ST CONLETH'S: Claire O’Connell; Grainne Cotter, Ruanne Hunt, Ola Haastrup; Aoife Cummins, Mary Cotter, Aine Habelin; Shifra Havill, Aoife Kirrane; Aoibhe Byron, Merie Byrne, Sinead Coffey; Naomi Luttrell, Claire Fox, Emma Lawlor. Subs: Courtney Finlay for Kirrane (27), Fiona Dempsey for Hunt (43), Sharon Boland for Habelin (51), Becky Fenlon for Lawlor (53)

TIMAHOE: Aoibhe Brennan; Anna Murphy, Jenny Murphy, Niamh Kehoe; Lilly Hooney, Aoife Gorman, Keira Gorman; Sarah Larkin, Katie Donoghue; Ava Dempsey, Mo Nerney, Keelin Moore; Sinead Goode, Aisling Quigley, Niamh Dundon. Subs: Grainne Buggy For Cummins (ht)

REFEREE: Damien Brady (Eire Og)