Towers came into this final on the back of a fine campaign including league honours and narrowly missing out on a Feile win, losing the final replay. They won the toss and team captain Emma O’Malley chose to play with the very strong breeze.
Bouyed by a big Towers support, Towers came out of the blocks the quickest with a two quick goals in the first five minutes – the first following a long free lobbed into the Ballinteer box by Towers free-taker, Emma O’Malley.
Towers had all the play and Ballinteer were finding it hard to get out of their own 21 yard line. Some stout defending and bad luck prevented Towers being even further ahead. Ballinteer enjoyed a late five minute first half purple patch and managed to score 1-1.
Conditions deteriorated in the second half but despite playing into a gale force breeze and lashing rain, Towers were still enjoying the better of the play. In the first five minutes of the second half, Towers hit the upright, narrowly hit the rebound wide and then hit another goal bound shot just wide. Midfielder Saoirse Walsh was having a great game, her long puckouts into the breeze gave Towers a great platform to build on.
Ballinteer scored a scrappy goal against the run of play and then pushed on enjoying a spell of possession with the Towers backs performing heroics in keeping them out. With time nearly up, the Towers defence caused the Ballinteer to overplay the ball with the ref blowing up for overcarrying just as she finished to the net. Towers led by the minimum going into injury time as Emma O’Malley knocked over the final score of the game from difficult angle on the left.
