TG4 All-Ireland Ladies IFC semi-final
Tyrone 3-14
Sligo 3-10
By Gavin Cawley
Tyrone booked a place in this year’s TG4 intermediate final at the expense of Sligo for the second year in a row but they left it late to ensure victory as goals from Chloe McCaffrey and Neamh Woods sealed the win late on.
Tyrone opened the scoring through Lycrecia Quinn, but the sides were level after four minutes as Stephanie O’Reilly hit the target for Sligo in flowing move involving Denise McGrath and Sinead Regan.
Sligo were very wasteful in the opening ten minutes kicking four wides in this period and Tyrone would punish Sligo with three points on the spin to lead by three as Grainne Rafferty and Gemma Begley were among the scores for the Ulster women.
An excellent goal chance for Begley came on 16 minutes but Noelle Gormley was on hand to deny the full forward. This seemed to give Sligo a boost and a brace of scores from Katie Walsh had the sides level after 21 minutes of the opening half.
Once again Tyrone had a great goal chance as Rafferty tried her best to get past Gormley but once again Tyrone were denied by the Sligo stopper. But Tyrone kicked on and scored three points in a row, before a free from Katie Walsh meant the Ulster girls lead 0-7 to 0-5 at the break.
In an exciting second half Lycrecia Quinn opened the goal scoring when she got the first of the six goals in the match shortly after the restart. Despite this Sligo came back at Tyrone with a goal of their own through Katie Walsh penalty, which put just a point between the sides.
Despite being a player down Tyrone scored three on the spin to take control of proceedings once again. It looked like the game had gone away from Sligo when Emma Jane Gervin got Tyrone’s second goal to lead by four.
Sligo had to try chase the game and Tyrone benefited as they went six clear. But a two-minute spell brought Sligo into the match as goals from Katie Walsh and Denise McGrath levelled matters at 3-10 to 2-13.
After the goal McGrath picked up a yellow and this would give Tyrone the boost needed to win by four points.
Scorers –
Tyrone: L Quinn 1-2, G Begley 0-4 (0-2f), E J Gervin 1-1, C McCafrey 1-1, G Rafferty 0-2, A Canavan 0-1, N Woods 0-2, E Brennan 0-1
Sligo: K Walsh 2-4 (0-2f), S O’Reilly 0-3, D McGrath 1-0, LA Laffey 0-1, E O’Reilly 0-1, N Brennan 0-1
Tyrone: L Kane; A Daly, J Barrett, C Conway; S McCarroll, C Hunter E Brennan; N Woods, EJ Gervin; N Hughes, L Quinn, Á Canavan; G Rafferty, G Begley, C McCaffrey.
Subs used: S Lynch for Kane (34), A Canavan for Lynch (47), E Mulgrew for Hunter (48), N O’Neill for Quinn (54).
Sligo: N Gormley; A Morrisroe, E Codd, M McNamara; G O’Loughlin, L Boles, KA Henry; S Regan, N Brennan; LA Laffey, S O’Reilly, S Naughton; E O’Reilly, K Walsh, D McGrath.
Subs used: B Byrne for O’Loughlin (ht), T Walsh for Naughton (ht), S Henry for E O’Reilly (46) S Naughton for Brennan (53).
Referee: Gerry Carmody (Roscommon)
