Old Leighlin give it everything but just fall short against Tinahely
Old Leighlin's Niamh Forde carries the forward past Tinahely's Ava Stapleton
If effort and sheer force of will was enough to win a Leinster Championship tie then surely Old Leighlin would be preparing for a semi-final next weekend but instead, they had to endure the anguish of defeat by the narrowest of margins at a rainy Molaise Park on Sunday.
As a result of Bennekerry/Tinryland’s All-Ireland success at intermediate level last year, Carlow’s champions played in the Leinster Senior Championship this time around but as fate would have it, Old Leighlin bumped into a team they knew very well.
The team teams met in a Leinster Intermediate final in 2021 when Tinahely needed the introduction of Irish rugby international Lucy Mulhall to help them to victory.
This tie was even closer and the suspicion is if it went on for even just a minute or so longer that Old Leighlin would have forced a draw but in the end they were left to rue the concession of two soft first half goals.
The first of those came from the opening score of the game when Aoife Gorman played in Aobha Harmon and she neatly fired past Nicole Hanley.
Old Leighlin recovered well and answered back with points from a Gemma Carpenter free and then an effort from former Irish senior 400m hurldes champion Jenny Saywer.
Harmon was on the mark again in the 11th minute but Carpenter answered back with a free.
Old Leighlin then breeched the Tinahely defence with a flowing move that ended with full back Anne Roche in an advanced position to make the final pass to Kate Burke who danced around Bea Clancy before hitting the net after 15 minutes.
That put Old Leighlin into the lead but that only lasted two minutes as once more Tinahely were able to find a way through and it was wing back Shannagh Goetelen on the end of the move and she shot through the legs of Nicole Hanley for a well taken goal.
Bronagh Nolan equalised for Old Leighlin but before the half was out, Tinahely could have scored a third goal but Harmon’s shot this time was narrowly over and the 11-in-a-row Wicklow champions took a 2-2 to 1-4 lead into half time.
Crucially for Tinahely, they came out early in the second half and scored twice, including a wonderful long range effort from the talismanic Jackie Kinch.
That left Old Leighlin with a mountain to climb, particularly as they were without star forward Rachel Sawyer who unfortunately suffered an ACL injury in the county final win over Bennekerry/Tinryland.
Kate Burke’s direct running caused Tinahely problems however, and she won a free in the 44th minute that Carpenter converted.
At the other end, Hanley made a smart reaction save to stop a long range free from Kinch from going all the way through to the net.
As the game came increasingly frantic, the cool head of Kinch produced a moment of real quality in the 51st minute to send Gorman through for what proved to be Tinahely’s final score of the game.
Old Leighlin pinned Tinahely in after that but couldn’t find the scores they needed. The pressure was unrelenting though and eventually Sawyer won a free in the first minute of injury time which Carpenter tapped over. From the next attack, Burke was fouled and Carpenter again did the needful to leave just a point in it with less than a minute to play.
Sawyer got her hands on the resulting kick out but couldn’t keep her feet as she landed and a relieved Tinahely gathered possession and carried it away from their goal for one last time.
A big effort from Old Leighlin but not quite enough against a wily old Tinahely side who now progress to a last four tie against Westmeath’s Milltown.
Bea Clancy; Roisin Byrne, Ciara Stokes, Aine McDonald, Shannagh Goetelen 1-0, Aine Byrne, Eimear O’Brien; Jessie Nolan Byrne, Aoife Gorman 0-1; Eimear O’Sullivan, Aobha Harmon 1-2, Ava Stapleton, Sarah Byrne, Jackie Kinch 0-2, Ciara Byrne.
Loretta Gilbert for S Byrne, 47; Emily Madden for O’Sullivan, 58.
Nicole Hanley; Keeva Collins, Anne Roche, Beibhinn Nolan, Amy Farrell, Niamh Forde, Katie Garry Murphy; Caoimhe O’Neill, Amy Hanley; Helen Roche, Bronagh Nolan 0-1, Jenny Sawyer 0-1, Gemma Carpenter 0-5fs, Kate Burke 1-0, Siofra O’Neill.
Noa Bambrick for Collins, 19.
Eoghan O’Neill (Laois).
