On a lovely Saturday morning in Ballyhar with the pitch in perfect condition, everything was set up for a great game for the U12 Girls in Division 1. However, despite the best efforts of all the girls in blue they came out on the wrong end of a 7 goal thriller.

Ballyhar started off slow and paid the price conceding 2 early goals giving themselves a mountain to climb in spite of some great efforts from Maria Scanlon in goal. Ballyhar needed a response, and it came from their midfield as they set to work with Emma O'Callaghan, Maisy O'Sullivan, Aoibhinn Daly and Niamh O'Sullivan pressing every ball and setting up the lethal striker Lucy Wynne, who pulled both goals back before half time to make it 2-2. Great running from Mollie O'Connor helped to create the space for Wynne to take advantage for her goals. While in defence, Anna Fitzgerald, Faye O'Brien, Emily O'Callaghan and Alice Gleeson recovered well to put in brave tackles all morning. H/T 2-2

Unfortunately, the 2nd half started with some deja-vu with Ballyhar suffering from another 5 min lapse in concentration which saw a strong Killorglin attack score two more goals straight after the restart. This was a body blow that the girls just couldn’t recover from. A switch of keepers saw Aoibhinn Daly go in goal for Ballyhar and the never say die attitude of the Ballyhar girls meant they kept trying. The Killorglin keeper was very busy and when Lucy Wynne completed her hat-trick, the momentum switched and Ballyhar piled on the pressure but just couldn’t pull back the final goal. F/T 3-4

Overall, a solid performance from the girls who showed great grit and resilience to fight back and will hopefully learn from this game.