Galway 1-15
Donegal 1-11

JASON BYRNE IN BALLINAMORE

THE Galway minor ladies footballers captured the All-Ireland title at Ballinamore in Leitrim on Saturday, thanks to a comfortable win over Donegal.

Corofin’s Lisa Leonard was the star for Con Moynihan’s side as she prove lethal from frees, kicking eight over and raising the white flag nine times in total.

Last year’s winners Donegal disappointed, and the only player of note having any impact was Geraldine McLaughlin who also kicked nine points.

Galway patiently kept Donegal at arms’ length in the first half, helped with a goal after 20 minutes when exceptional midfielder Dora Gorman burst through to receive a pinpoint pass from Leonard.
Her pace was simply too much for the Donegal defence and she lashed low into the left corner top open up a five-point gap which their opponents would not reduce until the final seconds.

McLaughlin and Leonard continued to dominate the afternoon’s scoring until Galway were dealt a blow midway through the second half when Maria Connell was sin-binned for her challenge on Ciara Hegarty.

But four minutes later the numbers were even again as O’Connell was joined by Donegal’s Tanya Kennedy for her bruising tackle on Gorman.

Galway also lost skipper Sarah Lynch to the sin-bin late on, but at this stage the game was all but over at 1-15 to 0-11.

Donegal had the final say when Ciara Grant bundled in a late consolation goal, but Galway buried the hurt of last year by convincingly crowning themselves champions.

Delighted manager Con Moynihan said afterwards: “The best team won on the day, I don’t think there is any doubt about that.

“This team has worked extremely hard; we’ve been on the go for the last few months. The big hurdle for the girls was Cork, and we did that. After that game, I said I believed in them and they believed in themselves today.

For more, read this week's Connacht Tribune.