Glenanne women dig deep to book a final place

GLENANNE women’s first team played host to Naas in what was to be a battle in the semi-final of the Jacqui Potter Shield competition, winning out 4-2 in Glenanne Park, reports Caoilin Dunne.

The Glenanne women are no strangers to this competition having reached the well-established St Patrick’s Day final before.

Momentum and comradery was strong amongst the team having been on form after the Christmas break.

On Saturday the team had a draw against tough competitors Trinity and this only spurred them on more to push for a win on Sunday.

On arrival at Glenanne Park everyone was feeling good and ready to go, unfortunately this was delayed due to a period of heavy hailstones but nonetheless Glenanne were ready to go and finished their warm-up strong and ready to get the game going from the starting whistle.

They did exactly this putting huge pressure on Naas, closing down their defenders and denying their attackers any chances.

Glenanne’s women fist team booked their place in the final with a victory over Naas

Their efforts were rewarded when they won a short corner and converted it with Fiona Walshe finding Paula Fitzpatrick on the back post for a deflection.

The energy from Glenanne could be felt around the field and from all the supporters who came out to cheer them on.

Naas were on the back foot and this was confirmed when a second goal for Glenanne with a great strike from Kate O’Connor in what was another well executed short corner.

Heading into halftime with a 2-0 lead was exactly where Glenanne wanted to be but they knew Naas would not stop fighting.

The third quarter proved tougher with legs tiring from the game the previous day however this did not stop the composure of the Glenanne team who played to their strengths and maintained their structure, which stopped any momentum that Naas had gathered.

Glenanne were unlucky not to be successful in the scoring zone in this quarter however they knew their scoring chances were not over.

Heading into the final 17.5 minutes of the game, the girls knew they had to leave everything on the pitch.

Naas made the decision to take off their goalkeeper, something unheard of for that long period of time but they appeared to have a game plan.

Eleven outfield players meant they had extra strength in attack and they were awarded a short corner which was converted bringing the score to 2-1.

The excitement didn’t end there as Naas spurred on and scored a second goal, with all now even, the Naas goalkeeper returned to the field.

Glenanne had more to give and this was proved with some fantastic distribution of the ball up the pitch creating excellent scoring opportunities one of which was successful with another goal for Paula Fitzpatrick.

A 3-2 lead with minutes to go caused Naas to take off their goalkeeper for a second time presumably hoping to draw level and force the game to 1vs1s.

It wasn’t to be for Naas as Glenanne kept pushing, winning two more short corners and scoring one with another excellent hit of the ball by Kate O’Connor.

Four minutes later the final whistle blew and Glenanne had won the thrilling game sending them through to the all to play for St Patrick’s Day final where they will face familiar opponents Trinity in Three Rock Rovers.

The team will be looking to keep the momentum and energy going by training hard in the meantime with three league games to play before the final.