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Dubs beat Mayo with a last kick point from Sinead Aherne

Dublin just about made it into the All Ireland Ladies Football final at Breffni Park on Saturday, thanks to a last kick of the game free converted from distance and a difficult angle by player of the match Sinead Aherne. After an opening twenty minutes dominated by Dublin, who led at that stage by 8 points, they went into defensive mode for the last 10 minutes of the half and led by just 6 points at half time.
Niamh McEvoy was inspirational during that 20 minute dominant spell.  She made a fabulous catch over the head of the full back to lay on a crucial pass for Sinead to score the first of her two well taken goals.  The second goal also came from a McEvoy pass, after beating two Mayo defenders to steer the ball into Sinead's path.

Mayo were a tranformed team in the second half, producing incredible energy levels to claw their way back into the game.  Dublin, by contrast, looked a bit lethargic and made two many mistakes for their own good.  Despite two early Aherne points that put the Dubs into an 8 point lead again, Mayo, inspired by the seemingly ageless Cora Staunton, drew level with 10 minutes to go.  After another exchange of points, with Dublin scoring through Nicole Owens after an inch perfect cross field pass from Sinead, it came down to that last kick with the clock ticking down towards zero.  The hooter sounded as the ball just about made it over the bar.

A remarkable feature of the game was that Syls players had a hand in every Dublin score.  Sinead scored 2-6, 2-3 from play.  She laid on the final pass for three points scored by Sinead Goldrick, Carla Rowe and Nicole.  Niamh, apart from setting up Sinead for her two goals, gave the final pass to Noelle Healy for her point.

Undoubtedly, Sinead deserved her Player of the Match trophy.  After the game, the unremovable smile on her face lit up the whole park as dusk approached.

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