DCU Ladies in league final thriller with UUJ

UUJ 0-10
DCU 1-04

Played in bitterly cold conditions in Dundalk, DCU Ladies GAA team served up a thrilling exhibition of football in this Division 1A league decider against bitter rivals UUJ.

As evident from the scoreline, this was a tough, hard-fought encounter with both defences ensuring that scores were at a premium for the opposition.

The first half began at a manic pace, UUJ quickest out of the blocks registering a point, however this was quickly counteracted by DCU’s Ciara McAnespie who was to prove a thorn in UUJ’s side for the entire evening.

Staunch defending from DCU, in particular Donna English, Aoife McAnespie and Ciara Dempsey, ensured UUJ only registered one point from play in the entire first half, the other four coming from frees, indeed as did 0-06 of UUJ’s final tally.

Wing forwards Roisin O Keeffe and Aedin Murray showed phenomenal workrate to track back helping their defence, with Murray bursting forward to register a lovely point with 20 minutes gone.

With further points from Sarah Connolly, Bronagh Sheridan and Lyndsay Davey, DCU went into the half time break one point to the good, 0-05 to 0-04.

The second half played out much like the first, with DCU edging matters slightly, the midfield pairing of Shannon Quinn and Fiona McHale covering every blade of grass in their efforts to curtail UUJ’s attacking threats.

DCU may have felt like the game was swinging in their direction when the ever-threatening Ciara Mc Anespie fired a wonderful shot to the net, putting her side 2 points in front with 10 minutes to go.

However, UUJ are not reigning O’Connor Cup champions for nothing and using their superior experience - along with the help of some seriously questionable refereeing decisions - clawed back the deficit and went ahead by three points.

Once this lead was established, UUJ proceeded to hold on to the ball, retaining possession in the middle third of the field, much to the frustration of DCU.

Despite running out 3 point losers on this occasion, DCU will take many positives from this game.

They more than matched the reigning champions in terms of workrate and possession, and unlike their victors, only 1 point of their overall tally came from a free kick, all others registered from play.

Indeed, many neutral observers commented that player for player, DCU were actually the better team, but for UUJ’s marginally superior fitness and ‘cuteness’ to retain possession once they established their 3 point lead in the dying minutes.

DCU now face IT Tralee and Queens in their qualifying group for the O’Connor Cup and should they emerge on top, face a very tough quarter final draw against either UL or NUIG.

However following this league final defeat, DCU are now looking towards the O’Connor Cup confident that if they can maintain and even marginally improve their current form, they are more than capable of beating the best in the country.