County camogie team hold Clare in thriller

THE Dublin Camogie team started their Centra National League Division 1B campaign with a thrilling game against Clare on Saturday afternoon which ended in a draw 0-16 to 1-13.

There was a plethora of talent from local teams involved with the squad including the Gannon sisters Niamh, Aishling and Claire, Eimear Kehoe and Leah Butler from St Judes, Abby Ryan from Crumlin GAA, Kerrie Finnegan and Claire McNamara from Faughs Celtic, Hannah Leddy & Emma Moran from Ballyboden St Enda’s, Jennifer Moore from Good Counsel Liffey Gaels and Niamh Roche from Lucan Sarsfields.

There was a great crowd in attendance on what was a cold but dry afternoon in NGDC Abbostown.

Despite the recent poor weather, the playing surface was in immaculate condition.

The game started off in Dublin’s favour as St Jude’s woman and captain Niamh Gannon led from the front and scored a superb point in the second minute.

Niamh Comerford would shortly add to this lead after and it would take until the sixth minute of the game for Clare to get points on the board, however once they did they would go on to score three in a row before Dublin made things level at 0-03 each in the 15th minute.

Claire would only score three more points for the remainder of the half however while Dublin finished out the first half strongly scoring five points.

These came courtesy of Grace O’Shea and Niamh Comerford with one each while St Jude’s woman Aishling Gannon managed to score three of her own.

This gave Dublin a slight lead heading into the break as the scoreline read 0-08 to 0-06 in their favour.

Dublin again started the half strongly with Niamh Comerford and Grace O’Shea being responsible for two quick scores that saw them take a four point lead and look to start controlling the contest.

This would prove to be a false dawn however as Clare benefited from a goal after a speculative ball dropped into the box, catching the Dublin players by surprise and managing to cross the goal line.

This would be followed by a lengthy break in play as Sarah Power was treated for a head injury and while Claire Gannon got her name on the scoresheet following the resumption it certainly felt that Dublin’s momentum had stalled.

Now feeling that the tide was switching in their favour Clare began to dominate proceedings and over the next few minutes registered five points without reply.

One of these points came from a 45 which had been awarded after Dublin keeper Ciara Jones was called into action to make a superb diving save, preventing a second goal for Clare.

With 10 minutes left in the game, Dublin management elected to make some changes and these changes would prove to be difference makers as substitute Emma Moran from Ballyboden St Enda’s would get her name on the scoresheet almost instantly.

This would be followed by a point from Faughs Celtic’s Kerrie Finnegan and this renewed sense of intensity from Dublin saw them win several frees with Niamh Comerford continuing to add to her scoring tally from dead balls.

The last two minutes of the game saw end to end action and while it appeared that Aishling Gannon had scored the winning point in the 32nd minute of the second half, Clare were awarded a free just outside the Dublin 20m line with seconds to go which they duly converted.

The Dubs are back in action this weekend as they travel across the border to take on Down before another away game to Wexford on February 28th.