O’Neill stars as Antrim book All-Ireland final spot

TG4 All-Ireland Junior Championship

Antrim 3-14

Sligo 2-13

By Deniese O’Flaherty

Lethal forward Maria O’Neill scored 3-5 as last year’s beaten finalists Antrim booked their place in the TG4 All-Ireland Junior Championship final with victory over a gallant Sligo team at St. Tiernach’s Park in Clones.

The Moneyglass player was in superb form and her goals came at crucial times for Antrim. But full credit to Sligo who fought until the very end.

Early points were traded between Alyssa Davidson and Anna McDaniel before Antrim took a hold of proceedings. They grabbed their first goal in the seventh minute when Bronagh Devlin’s ball was flicked to the net by O’Neill. The Saffrons were seven points ahead when Sligo got their second point of the game in the 13th minute through Sinead Regan.

O’Neill kicked an excellent two point free in the 16th minute and two minutes later grabbed her and her side’s second goal to extend the lead to 10 points. It looked ominous for Sligo but they made a fightback.

Leah Duffy kicked three points while McDaniel (2) and Regan were also on target as the Yeats County cut the gap to four points in the 26th minute. O’Neill got a point two minutes later to stifle Sligo’s comeback. Theresa Mellon fired over a lovely point just before the break to give Antrim a 2-9 to 0-09 lead.

Sligo cut the gap to just two points within minutes of the restart, McDaniel with another point before Rachel McGoldrick played the ball to Denise McGrath and she fired past Aine Devlin.

But just like earlier Antrim responded with three points in a row but Sligo were resilient and came back at them. Blaithin Lavin fired over a point before McGrath got her second goal of the game in the 48th minute to cut the lead to just one point.

The next score was going to be important and it came from the boot of the clinical O’Neill who scored her third goal in the 49th minute. Prenter and O’Neill (free) followed up with points.

Sligo needed a third goal and as they went in search of one Antrim’s defence held firm. Subs Lauren Normanly (free) and Aife Haran hit over late points for Sligo but it was Antrim who advanced to another All-Ireland junior decider.

Scorers

Antrim: M O’Neill 3-5 (2f, 1tpf), O Prenter 0-4 (1f), T Mellon 0-2, L Dahunsi, A Tubridy, A Davidson 0-1 each.

Sligo: D McGrath 2-0, A McDaniel 0-4, L Duffy 0-3, S Regan 0-2, R McGoldrick, B Lavin, A Haran, L Normanly (f) 0-1 each.

ANTRIM: A Devlin; E Kearns, M Blaney, M Mulholland; L Agnew, D Coleman, C McKenna; L Dahunsi, Á Tubridy; T Mellon, B Devlin, A Davidson; E Louise McAreavey, M O’Neill, O Prenter. Subs: A Monaghan for Davidson 36, C Maguire for Prenter 55

SLIGO: E McGuire; H Gilligan, C Dunne, A Durcan; C King, C Walsh, T Breheny; S Regan, S Cunney; A McDaniel, D McGrath, S Feeney; L Duffy, R McGoldrick, B Lavin. Subs: C Gorman for McGoldrick 50, S Dalton for Feeney 52, A Haran for Duffy and L Normanly for Lavin 57.

Referee: Barry Redmond (Wexford).