THE ladies’ football headlines on Monday were all about Donegal’s 61-point win over Down in the Ulster Senior Championship quarter-final, which somewhat overshadowed the fact another All-Ireland title went to the north-west last weekend.
The Tír Chonaill U21s secured the Aisling McGing B title last Sunday afternoon with a 4-12 to 2-7 win over Longford in Markievicz Park. And while they might have led from start to finish, it was not until the final five or so minutes that victory was firmly in their grasp, with two late goals finally seeing off an stubborn Longford side.
Amber Barrett, who scored 1-1 for the seniors the day before, earned the player-of-the-final accolade, finishing with 2-9, with full-forward Aisleen Cunningham netting Donegal’s other two goals.
With the team backboned by 11 senior players, who must now turn their attentions towards an Ulster senior semi-final against Tyrone, there really has been little time to let their achievement sink in, according to captain Emer Gallagher.
“It’s still in the honeymoon phase at the minute where people are congratulating us,” said the Termon player, who holds the full-back jersey for both the U21 and senior teams.
“We haven’t really had time to sit down and take it all in yet. I had a lot of faith in our squad and management, and we were well aware of the talent that was in the squad, but we were very wary of our upcoming opposition at the same time.
“We were advised to focus on one game at a time, so we didn’t jump the gun in terms of expectations, but I knew we had the talent to get to the final stages if we played well.”
The final score did not reflect just how close the game was and it was a relieved Donegal side at the final whistle. Indeed, it could well have been a different outcome had the players who started last Saturday’s Ulster Senior Championship game not been afforded the opportunity to come off early due to their side’s total dominance of Down, something manager Davy McLaughlin recognises.
“Saturday was a mismatch and thankfully we could afford the luxury of taking the four U21 players off after 20 minutes,” said McLaughlin.
“We started very well against Longford, but I think we took our eye off the ball for the last 10 minutes of the first half and the first 10 minutes of the second half. But our fitness told in the final 10 or so minutes and perhaps that would have been different had those girls potentially played 60 minutes on the Saturday.
“We had no expectations when we first entered this competition, but the reaction of the girls at the final whistle, you only had to look at them to see what this meant. They were absolutely buzzing and are totally delighted.”
Gallagher added: “Longford really never gave up for the whole game. They threw everything at us and their heart is something they should be very proud of.
"The game was neck to neck until we got our final two goals near the end of the game; it could have easily gone either way.”
