Mungret St. Paul’s Ladies make history with Midleton win

Mungret St. Paul’s are celebrating this Saturday evening. The ever improving club have now annexed their first Munster title at any code, after a tight, tense two point victory over Midleton in the Munster LGFA Junior final. It finished Mungret St. Paul’s 0-7 Midleton 0-5.

Played at a wet and at times windy Mallow, the winners had late scores from Yvette Culhane and Claire Coughlan to get them over a strong Cork challenge.

The Intermediate county champions arrived at this final having defeated Knockainey in the county final before winning away to Abbeydorney in the Munster semi-final last month.

This victory was a textbook team display with many of their key players contributing to the victory at various stages. Keeper Carol Bateman was busy early on and her defence were in top form after a shaky start, keeping a clean sheet against a dynamic looking Midleton attack.

Leading 0-4 to 0-2 at the change of ends, there was first half scores from Grainne McKenna, Fiona Morrissey and Jayne Carey.

The sides were level midway through the half before Mungret broke their long spell without a score to re-take the lead. Player of the Match McKenna converting a free.

Level again down the stretch, Mungret took advantage of a sin bin for Molly Beausang and scored the final brace of points. Sub Niamh O’Keeffe expertly found Yvette Culhane for the first before Coughlan weaved some magic to add an insurance score.

The pair have served the club gallantly throughout the years and now get a crack at the All-Ireland series, where they’ll face

SCORERS: Mungret St Pauls: Grainne McKenna 0-3 (3frees), Jayne Casey, Fiona Morrissey, Yvette Culhane and Claire Coughlan 0-1 each. Midleton: Sadhbh Beausang (2 frees), Ava McCauliffe (1 free) 0-2 each, Lucy Cashman 0-1.

MUNGRET ST PAULS: Carol Bateman; Caroline O’Neill, Laura Dunne, Mairéad Clancy; Shannon Burke, Cameryn Moloney, Jillian Buckley; Clare O’Meara Áine Ryan (C); Emma O’Rourke, Gráinne McKenna, Niamh Crowley; Jayne Casey, Megan O’Malley, Fiona Morrissey. Subs: Aoife Morrissey for Crowley (half-time); Niamh O’Keeffe for O’Malley (34 mins); Claire Coughlan for F. Morrissey (45 mins); Yvette Culhane for O’Rourke (54 mins); Sarah Horgan for O’Neill (60 mins).

MIDLETON: Ryanna Power; Claudia Kearney, Deirdre Corcoan, Megan Kelly; Kate O’Sullivan, Molly Beausang, Orchard Cronin; Lucy Wallace, Abby Quirke (C); Ava McAuliffe, Sadhbh Beausang, Rachel Quirke; Meghan Wallace, Lucy Cashman, Lucy Kenneally. Subs: Amy McCarthy for R. Quirke (halftime); Jodie Keegan O’Connell for M. Wallace (41 mins).

REFEREE: Paddy Smith (Waterford).

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