Thirds journey to the SEMI-FINALS = Happy Days
The ladies thirds play in the Division 9/10 cup and for as long as I have been with Glenanne (only 4 years or so) we haven’t made it past the second round. This year was looking like it would be the same even with a bye in round one we seemed to have gotten stuck at tougher end of the draw.
So our round 2 match we were pitted against Old Alex who we currently in second place in Division 9 so we knew this was going to be a tough match. This was our last match of 2011 and my last match before stupid shoulder surgery so we were determined to make it a good one, we were also up against some of our old team mates so we had a point to prove. I think it’s fair to say the first half got the nerves out of us with the Alex team making some good attacking runs and we had to do some serious defending to keep them away from our goal. However our break came when Katie taking a hit out saw Lucy free on the right hand side and sent a terrific ball down the wing to her, Lucy then fled up the side line and into the circle passing to Sinead who made no mistake in firing the ball into the goal leaving the Glens ahead 1-0. It didn’t take long for the Alex girls to get one back though leaving it 1 all at half time. The second half started at pace with some good attacks by both teams both the final whistle left the score drawn. So it was into extra time and golden goal, I think its fair to say no one wanted this to go to flicks and both teams were playing hard and fast despite being dead on our feet. We finally got an opportunity when a quickly taken free by Sinead outside the circle resulted in the Old Alex sweeper infringing on the 5 yard rule for the last stray with the umpire, short corner to the Glens just on the half time whistle, so this was the last play of the first half. I must say I have never been so nervous pushing a ball out for a short corner, but the nerves must have done something good, ball out to Sinead who made no mistake in belting the ball into the corner. Go the golden go and go the Glens final score 2-1. Needless to say we were all very excited to be through to a quarter final, but the excitement didn’t last long when we found out our opponents were going to be the team leading division 9 Mullingar!!!!!
So into January and third match back was our quarter final bout with Mullingar, now I have never done a match report on a match I didn’t see but here goes….. Needless to say I was very upset to be missing this match, even if it was only going to be as a supporter, but I was off to the Leinster game so a big thanks to Susan who was sending me match updates. So before the game we had Gemma and Alice pull out due to injury thankfully Paula Davis was there to fill in. My first update came about 20 minutes into the game to hear that Mullingar had gone ahead how they got that goal I don’t know, sounded like it was a fast break and it must have been to get past our amazing defence and Catherine!!! Think I spent more time looking at my phone after that than the Leinster match and was relieved to say the least when I got a text to say we had scored levelling the game at 1 all. Apparently the ball was sent down the line to Niamh Mc, whom I’m sure as always beat nearly all of the Mullingar defence to get into the circle and then seeing that she had no shot spotted Brid lurking alone at the top of the circle, so selfless and accurate as always passed the ball out to Brid. Now Brid advised me she was a bit shocked to see that no one was in front of her and that she actually had a shot on goal (I’m sure aghhhhhhh was going through her head) but her cool exterior held out and bang through the goals legs she scored her first goal for Glenanne. That left the game 1-1 at half time, the second half was a different story with the Glens seeming to dominate for much of it and scoring another two goals both from short corners one from Katie and the other from you guessed it Sinead Ahern, lets face it a thirds match just wouldn’t be right if Sinead didn’t score. Full time score 3-1 to Glenanne through to the Semi-finals on the 19th February at home against North Kildare. A big thanks to all who came out to support and to Tim for umpiring. Also well done girls and sorry I didn’t get to see it but hopefully I’ll be playing on the 19th whoop whoop!!!!!!!
