Syls young ladies overpowered by Foxrock Cabinteely.
Syl's Ladies Dublin Senior Championship campaign came to a juddering
halt at the semi final stage on Wednesday evening when they came up
against a powerful and seasoned Foxrock Cabinteely team who have been
at the top of Dublin football for a few years and were Champions two
years ago. Syls were short five first choice players, Lucia Hughes,
Ciara Lynch, Nicole Owens, Kim White and Emer Treacy and lost Dublin
Minor captain Louise Ryan to injury at half time. While Foxcab did
not have a Sinead Aherne, they had six Niamh McEvoys in the key
positions up the middle and Syls weakened team could not compete with
this level of strength.
Nevertheless, Syls competed from start to finish. Foxcab put a
succession of markers on Sinead Aherne who fouled her whenever she
looked like threatening the goals. In spite of that, she still
managed to score four points from play, as well as four from the
inevitable frees. Niamh McEvoy put in a huge amount of work in the
middle of the field making several strong runs forward. It was also
good to see Sinead Tracey back in action after a long layoff and the
stand in managers Declan Barnes and Anthony Keogh gave several of the
younger subs a run in the second half.
While it was a huge disappointment for the girls on the night, this
will serve as a huge learning exercise for an up and coming Syls team
and they will benefit from the experience as they continue to
develop. Only three years ago, they were in the Junior ranks so
reaching the semi final of the Senior championship is, in itself, a
major achievemnt of which this group of girls can be proud. And
there is still the prospect of promotion from League Division 2 to
Division 1, where they will compete against the top teams on a
regular basis and thus get the opportunity for still more improvement.
Syls Cailíni Abú