Disappointment but immense pride was the overwhelming feeling Sunday evening as Under 16 ladies team manager Michael Collins reflected upon the ladies defeat to Ballyboden St Enda’s in the Tesco Homegrown Division 1 Championship semi-final.
The Towers ladies were defeated in Moyle Park by a very strong Ballyboden side but put in a great performance and have made remarkable progress over a two year period. Our ladies were three points ahead at half-time, 3-4 v 2-4. Dublin footballer Amy Conroy scored 2 goals and Sarah Jane Hecker also netted, while points were kicked by another county player Sinead Collins (x 2 points) and Siobhan Ennis (x2 points). But the game changed in the second half when the visitors strengthened.
Despite matching Ballyboden in many areas, the Tower ladies struggled to create scoring opportunities. Having been trailing by six points, our ladies brought it back to three but missed an opportunity to narrow the gap to two and Boden capitalized with two quick points and won 5-11 v 3-9 in the end. Towers scorers in the second half were Conroy (x 4 points) and Chantelle Geraghty (x 1 point).
“The girls lost to a very strong Ballyboden team and I told them they can be immensely proud of their performance,” team manager Michael Collins stated. “Around three years ago we were playing in Division 3 and now we are competing with the very best in the Division 1 Championship. This year we have beaten very strong teams who would have previously beaten us in the past, such as O’Toole’s and Na Fianna. These girls have shown great character and made brilliant improvements and we are now one win away from winning the Division 2 league title. I’m very proud of the girls and their excellent achievements.”
Michael extended his thanks to the parents of the girls for their excellent support of the team and to the supporters who turned out for the team Sunday and throughout the year. Ballyboden will be the opposition once again when Towers play their remaining Division 2 match in early November.
Pictures from Sunday’s game, courtesy of Peter Parker, are now available to view via our Flickr account here.
