Injury-time goal seals victory for Old Leighlin
Wild celebrations on the field after Old Leighlin beat fierce rivals Bennekerry-Tinryland to win the Ladies SFC final in SETU, Carlow.
Old Leighlin banished the ghosts of the 2023 and 2024 finals as they overcame their fiercest of rivals, Bennekerry-Tinryland, to claim the TelLab Ladies Senior Football Championship for 2025.
These two clubs have now met in the last nine finals - each one since 2017 - and while Bennekerry-Tinryland have had the upper hand in recent years, outstanding performances from Gemma Carpenter, Amy Hanley, Amy Farrell and captain Caoimhe O’Neill gave Old Leighlin their first title since 2022 Old Leighland had been the better team for most of the game, but a late goal from Bennekerry-Tinryland’s superstar Cliodhna Ní Shé looked to have been enough to win the game, only for O’Neill to come up with an injury-time winner at a packed SETU Carlow.
Bennekerry-Tinryland were going for three senior titles in a row and came into the game as slight favourites, having won all five games in the round robin to finish top of the pile, including a one-point win over Old Leighlin in late July when the sides met in the opening round.
They also came into the game as the reigning Leinster and All-Ireland Intermediate champions, having beaten Dee Rangers of Meath to win last year's provincial crown before making history as the first Carlow team to make it to the Croke Park showcase where they beat Galway’s Annaghdown to win the county's first LGFA All-Ireland Intermediate title.
Old Leighlin started well and took an early lead when Carpenter pointed a close-range free. She then doubled her side's lead in the 10th minute, but Bennekerry-Tinryland were soon level thanks to a free and a score from play from Ní Shé.
The defending champions took the lead midway through the first half when Ní Shé finished off a fabulous team move with a lovely strike over the bar.
Old Leighlin then broke on the counterattack and a fabulous strike from midfielder Amy Farrell had the teams level. Barry Hayes's side began to dominate the game and were rewarded when Carpenter pointed another free to put Old Leighlin back in front after 21 minutes.
Bennekerry-Tinryland were living dangerously as Old Leighlin pushed the holders back closer and closer to their own goal; but the blues were struggling to make their dominance count on the scoreboard.
Three wayward frees from Carpenter let Bennekerry-Tinryland off the hook and Chris Townsend's charges punished those missed chances when Ní Shé powered through the Old Leighlin defence before drilling her shot beyond Nicole Hanley and into the net.
That green flag came in stoppage time at the end of the half and left Bennekerry-Tinryland somehow in the lead at the break, up 1-3 to 0-4.
Carpenter atoned for her earlier missed frees barely two minutes after the restart when she saw her shot creep inside the post and past Bennekerry-Tinryland captain Shannen Cotter to raise a green flag for Old Leighlin.
She followed that up by slotting a free before Hanley and O'Neill broke away, almost creating a second goal for Old Leighlin but for some heroic last-gasp defence from B/T.
A free from Ní Shé was Bennekerry-Tinryland's first score of the half in the 41st minute and cut the gap back to a single point.
Substitute Roisin Byrne brought the sides level, but Old Leighlin were in front again midway through the half thanks to a fabulous score from Bronagh Nolan.
Some outstanding work from Hanley down the left almost created a second goal for Old Leighlin, but instead it was Bennekerry-Tinryland who surged forward where Ní Shé rattled the net for the second time to put her side back in front.
But there was still time for more drama as Kate Burke scored to leave a point between the teams with two minutes left. And with the clock ticking into the red, up stepped O'Neill to deliver a captain's moment when her side needed it the most, firing the ball into the Bennekerry-Tinryland net to bring the title back to Old Leighlin.
O’Neill was one of several Old Leighlin players that featured for the Naomh Bríd camogie team who lost to Mount Leinster Rangers in the county semi-final the previous weekend, but no better remedy for them that delivering the Senior Football crown in front of an amazing crowd in SETU.
Gemma Carpenter 1-4 (0-3f), Caoimhe O'Neill 1-0, Amy Farrell, Kate Burke and Bronagh Nolan 0-1 each.
Cliodhna Ní Shé 2-4 (0-2f), Roisin Byrne 0-1.
Nicole Hanley; Keeva Collins, Anne Roche, Beibhin Nolan; Siofra O'Neill, Niamh Forde, Katie Garry-Murphy; Brona Nolan, Amy Farrell; Rachel Sawyer, Caoimhe O'Neill, Kate Burke; Helen Roche, Gemma Carpenter, Amy Hanley.
Jenny Sawyer for R Sawyer (8, inj), Noa Bambrick for Garry-Murphy (49).
Shannen Cotter; Clodagh Mahon, Leanne Corcoran, Marie Cranny; Ruth Bermingham, Leah Mullins, Sinead Thompson; Elaine Ware, Fiona O’Sullivan-Doyle; Aoibhin Webb, Cliodhna Ní Shé, Marve O'Neill; Tara Webb, Sarah Nolan, Sinead Hayden.
Roisin Byrne for Thompson (36), Grace Lawler for O’Sullivan-Doyle (41), Chloe Ryan for Nolan (44).
Marion Hayden.
