Ladies leave it late and make Kildare pay the penalty
LFA INTER-LEAGUE SHIELD FINAL
NEFL 10-9 on penalties
Justin Burke
The North East Football League Ladies left it very late in the Leinster Football Association Shield final to steal this trophy out of the hands of their counterparts from Kildare.
It looked like this game could be a one sided affair after just five minutes of this final as early pressure from Kildare saw a shot from Louise Scully deflected into the NEFL net to give Kildare and District a 1-0 nil lead.
The Kildare side looked very comfortable in the early exchanges of this match with former Peamount Utd goalkeeper Brooke Dunne showing well in the midfield position.
Dunne was linking well with the strike force of Molloy Nason and Aoife Daly but their efforts to get in behind the NEFL defence was thwarted by the impressive Roisin Cullen in the back line.
This game looked like it was over until the last 15 minutes as NEFL ladies made some key changes to their attacking line up with Katie Hawthorne adding a bit of bite to their team and in midfield where Callan and Greenan came on for a more direct route on goal.
This proved to be a masterclass as it was substitute Katie Callan who struck the equalising goal in the 89th minute when she broke through on goal and fired into the bottom left hand corner of the net.
Neither team could find a winner in the few remaining minutes, and it went straight to a penalty shootout. Both teams were very impressive at penalties with all scored before Roisin Cullen stepped up to fire home and make it 10-9, then with Kildare next up Lauren Darcy sent her kick just over the crossbar.
This was the second time the North East Football League has won a provincial title and both have gone to the Ladies section, coincidently both wins came against the Kildare and District Football League at the MDL grounds in Navan.
NEFL - Layla Rose (Balrath FC); Jodie Quinn (Kingscourt Harps), Aoife Carroll (Park Celtic Summerhill), Roisin Cullen (Torro Utd), Jen Byrne (Torro Utd), Michaela Newell (Cootehill Harps), Nadine Cathcart (Kingscourt Harps), Abby Matthews (Torro Utd), Megan De Souza (Duleek FC), Lucie Larkin (Parkvilla FC), Alex Cleary (Parkvilla FC). Subs - Neva O’Reilly (Park Celtic Summerhill) for Rose half-time, Katie Hawthorne (Cootehill Harps) for Larkin, Caoimhe Fields (Kingscourt Harps) for Cleary both 55 mins, Kate Callan (Albion Rovers) for De Souza 66m, Macayla Greenan (Cootehill Harps) for Quinn 69m Lily Winters (Albion Rovers), Shannon Conneely (Torro Utd).
Match officials - Liam Byrne, Jason Sheerin, Glen Gavigan (all Meath Branch).