Aisling Maher leads Capital ladies to historic win
BY NIALL SHERRY, SPORTS EDITOR
SPORTSEDITOR@KILKENNYOBSERVER.IE
Glen Dimplex All-Ireland Senior Camogie Championship QF
Dublin 1-13
Kilkenny 0-12
Kilkenny senior Camog’s bowed out of this years Glen Dimplex All-Ireland Senior Camogie Championship after losing to Dublin in Croke Park last Saturday. Peter ‘Chap’ Cleere’s team were beaten by a hard-working Dublin side that defied the odds to reach their first semi-final in seven years and second since 1990.
Gerry McQuaid’s side were worthy winners on the day and had great performances from the likes of Aisling Maher, who hit 0-7 on the day and also went home with the POTM award. Another Aisling, this time Castleknock’s O’Neill made a big impact when spring from the Dublin Bench for the last 20 minutes, getting on the ball and registering two fine points for the Metropolitans.
Their sixth minute goal proved crucial, and it was a clever effort from former county footballer Sinéad Wylde. The Cuala clubwoman somehow managed to flick the sliotar from behind past Piltown’s Aoife Norris in the Kilkenny goal.
Dublin actually went 20 minutes without scoring, but still managed to go into the break one point up. The sides swapped scores after the break and when Aoife’s Doyle’s and Prendergast’s fired over efforts to level matters, the Kilkenny supporters would have hoped that their side would have used their greater experience to pull clear, but this was not to be.
The Sky Blues looked fitter in the closing stages of the game and hit the last four scores of the quarter-final tie to book their place in this years semi-final, where they will play Cork in UPMC Nowlan Park on July 27th.
Scorers Kilkenny: A Pendergast 0-5 (3fs); A Doyle 0-3; C Keher Murtagh 0-2; S Fitzgerald, K Power 0-1 each.
Scorers Dublin: A Maher 0-7 (6fs); S Wylde 1-0; A O’Neill 0-2; S Nolan, A McKearney A Gannon, C Gannon 0-1 each
KILKENNY: A Norris, M Teehan, G Walsh, K Byrne, N Deely, L Murphy, S O’Keeffe, K Doyle, K Power, S Barcoe, S Fitzgerald, A Doyle, C Keher Murtagh, A Prendergast, J Malone. Subs: T Fitzgerald for O’Keeffe (ht), M Bambrick for K Doyle (44), L Greene for S Fitzgerald (47), K Nolan for Barcoe (52)
DUBLIN: A Gorman, A Ryan, E O’Byrne, A McKearney, C Gannon, K Finnegan, Z Couch, S Nolan, N Gannon, A Gannon, E Jamieson-Murphy, A Maher, G O’Shea, E Flanagan, S Wylde. Subs: A O’Neill for Flanagan (41), A Rafter for Nolan (43), L Sharkey for Couch (45), A Kenny for Ryan (60+1), A Heffernan for Jamieson-Murphy (60+3)
REFEREE: Andy Larkin (Cork)
