Louth ladies steamroll their way to an opening round victory over Wicklow

Louth 5-10                                                                                                                                Wicklow 0-10

That old adage of “goals win games” comes to mind as Louth raised five second half green flags to steamroll their way to an opening round victory over Wicklow in the Leinster Intermediate Championship in Cooley on Sunday afternoon.

While their male counterparts were battling it out for a place in the Leinster decider in Croke Park, Louth ladies got their provincial campaign off to a winning start, with Lauren Boyle and Laura Collins turning on the style in that second period to ensure that the outcome of this contest was never in doubt from the 35th minute onwards, as the Wee County gained revenge for losing out to the Garden County in last year’s competition.

Eager to put down an early marker, Aine Breen who did not feature in that clash last year, grabbed the game’s opening score straight from the throw in, having played a lovely one/two with Niamh Rice, whose two goals against the same opposition helped to preserve Louth’s Division 3 status when the two sides also met in a relegation play off in 2022.

Breen’s early score was cancelled out by a Marie Kealy free, who was a constant outlet ball for the visitors.

The opening half was largely nip and tuck, with Aoife Russell who started the game in the full forward line, putting the home side back in front from the angle in a move involving Niamh Rice and Lauren Boyle, both lining out on their home turf off Cooley Kickhams’ Fr McEvoy Park.

However, Wicklow reaped the rewards of running at the Louth defence early on, with Aoife Gorman and Niamh Cullen all earning free kicks, which were converted by the lively Marie Kealy, to move the Garden County ahead at 0-3 to 0-2 after 18 minutes.

Louth’s did struggle for cohesion in the final third, with the direct ball kicked into the inside line often being turned over, with Wicklow captain Sarah Jane Winders leading by example, with some excellent blocking and turnovers.

In fact, 7 out of the 13 turnovers against Louth in that first half emanated from the loose kick passes.

Kate Flood later collected a Mia Duffy pass, to tee up Niamh Rice to level things up, which was quickly followed up, by the influential Aine Breen setting up Boyle to put the Reds ahead again.

The cheers and excitement from the home support anytime Rice or Boyle touched the ball was palpable throughout, with St Pats star Aine Breen also finishing with 28 possessions over the 60 minutes, despite being sinbinned in the second half.

However, Wicklow refused to go away, with Louth’s Ceire Nolan deployed in the sweeper role, they enjoyed several passages of play and one such long passage saw the away side hang onto possession for a noticeable period of time, which ended with Aoife Gorman kicking a delightful effort over the bar to draw parity once again heading into the break, with half back Niamh Kenny and Niamh Cullen once again involved.

In this period, Rebecca Lambe Fagan once again produced an excellent save to deny Kealy from close range, with Cullen, Kenny and Aimee Maher involved in the build up.

Aine Breen was involved in anything positive for Louth, and the captain teed up Aoife Russell to kick her second point of the half, to give Kit Henry’s side a slender lead at the break at 0-5 to 0-4.

Second Half:

Six minutes into the second half, and the game was effectively over as a contest, as Louth bagged three goals to give themselves a nine point lead at 3-5 to 0-5, in a second half which saw the hosts press on the Wicklow defence and kickout, and the visitors forced to kick several balls over the sideline, with Louth winning 8 out 14 on the visitor’s kickout, with the wet conditions conducive to loose play and handling errors.

Picking up a loose ball from an Aine Breen sideline ball on the stand side, Niamh Rice drove at the Wicklow defence, before teeing up her college, club and county mate Lauren Boyle who fired to the net via the fingertips of Wicklow keeper Ellen Griffin for Louth’s opening major. The Cooley star was amongst the goals moments later, when she latched on to a Laura Collins free which dropped short in the goal mouth, before driving the ball to the back of the net.

Louth’s third major in a ruthlessly dominant spell, emanated from Laura Collins who slotted past Griffin, after collecting an Aine Breen cross-field pass.

These goals set Louth on their way to a welcomed victory, as they led by 3-5 to 0-6 after 37 minutes, with Aoife Gorman twice raising white flags for Wicklow, with the midfielder assisted by Marie Kealy and Sarah Jane Winders for these scores.

As far as Louth were concerned, the second half was about the two L’s, Laura and Lauren, with Lauren Boyle being awarded a penalty by referee Sinead McHugh, which was duly converted by Laura Collins, and along with a Boyle free, Louth were 4-6 to 0-7 ahead in the final 10 minutes.

There was even time for subs Rebecca Carr and Róisin Maguire to add their names to the scoresheet, while Laura Collins sealed her hattrick with the last kick of proceedings to seal a five star second half showing for Louth, who sealed victory in the first game of Group B of the TG4 Leinster Intermediate Football Championship.

Louth: Rebecca Lambe Fagan; Eimear Murray, Dearbhla O’Connor, Eilish Hand; Seoda Matthews, Shannen McLaughlin, Mia Duffy; Aine Breen (0-1), Aoife Halligan; Laura Collins (3-0) (1 pen), Kate Flood, Lauren Boyle (2-4) (1f); Aoife Russell (0-2), Niamh Rice (0-1), Ceire Nolan.

Subs: Caitlin O’Reilly for O’Connor (38), Ciara Woods for Flood (52), Katie Doheny for Mathews (54), Abi Keenan for Duffy (58), Roisin Maguire (0-1) for Russell (58), Rebecca Carr (0-1) for Rice (62).

Wicklow: Ellen Griffin; Sarah Evans, Sarah Jane Winders, Roisin Byrne; Niamh Kenny, Lucy Dunne, Jackie Byrne; Aimee Maher, Aoife Gorman; Eimear O’Sullivan, Niamh Cullen, Yasmin Dagge; Sarah Delahunt, Marie Kealy, Helena Dowling.

Subs: Gráinne Flynn for Dagge (43), Sarah O’Toole for Dowling (53)

Referee: Sinead McHugh (Dublin)