GAA: Derry Senior Ladies beat Kilkenny to record their first victory of the campaign
Derry 3-11 Kilkenny 2-4 Derry Senior Ladies made the long journey on Sunday past down to Kilkenny worthwhile with a win to record their first victory of the National league campaign.
It was a superb team performance the forwards settling early with a goal after three minutes from full forward Megan Devine and closely followed by a point from Aoife Laverty. Despite a lot of pressure from Kilkenny with some fine piercing runs the defence dealt very comfortably with every attack and were able to work the ball out of defence and create six unanswered points. Kilkenny found Devine and Laverty a handful in this early part of the game .The Full back line of Nuala Brown Ciara McGurk and Cait glass were on top of their markers as were the half backs Holly, Watson and Kinevlan who went forward at every opportunity and just before the half took a fine long range point before Devine put more daylight between the sides finishing to the net Kilkenny were awarded a penalty and converted it to leave the half time score Derry 2-8 to Killkenny 1-1
The second half saw Derry command Midfield with some fine fielding and driving runs from Cara Farran and Annie Crozier. They supplied the half forward line with plenty of ball which Emma Dotherty, Ciara Moore and Dania Donnelly took advantage off to create lots of scoring opportunities.
Kilkenny had another two points added but each time Derry cancelled them out and with 10 minutes to go Kilkenny got awarded a penalty which they put away but only just as the Derry keeper Cheree Mackey had guessed the right side and got her fingertips to it but unfortunately the ball slipped inside the post. Derry seemed to push on after that putting in a very gutsy last 10 minutes they used the kick outs wisely directing the kicks towards Sinead Comer who gave some great passes into the forward line. Rhianna Curran had a sensational last Five scoring a goal which was later disallowed for square ball scoring a fine point and winning a penalty for Emma Doherty to convert. Ciara Moore finished the scoring with a very nice point at the death to finish on a Final score of Derry 3-11 Kilkenny 2-4
Derry: Cheree Mackey, Nuala Brown Ciara McGurk Cait Glass Shannen Watson Katy Holly Danielle Kivenlan (0-1) Cara Farran Annie Crozier Dania Donnelly Emma Doherty (1-2) Ciara Moore (0-1) Rhianna Curran (0-1) Megan Devine (2-4) Aoife Laverty (0-2). Sub: Sinead Comer for Cara Farran