NFL Round 3 Game Report (Sligo v Armagh)

Back 18/02/2013 @ 10:59 | Ladies | NFL Round 3 Game Report (Sligo v Armagh)

Round 3 National Football League /  17th February 2013 @2pm Markievicz Park, Sligo

       Sligo v Armagh

Sligo 2013 Main Sponsor:  Pet Stop, Carraroe Retail Park, Sligo

Sligo Management: Pat Costello, Noel Knox, Ted Maloney, Margaret Gormley & Rose Cawley

Today’s Team:

Noelle Gormley, Grainne McLoughlin, Tracy O’Hara, Etna Flanagan (Capt), Nicole Fowley, Ruth Goodwin, Jacquie Mulligan, Bernice Byrne, Ciara Doyle, Louise Brett, Sinead McTiernan, Karen Maloney, Siobhan Melvin, Elaine O’Reilly, Roisin Collery.

Subs: Emma Cullen, Lauran Boles, Siobhan O’Sullivan, Rachael Monaghan, Annemarie Coleman, Aisling Ewing, Aine Gormley, Clare Collern, Denise McGrath, Lorainne O’Reilly, Shauna Brady, Sarah Feeney, Grainne McDonagh, Tara Doddy.Laura Goonan.

 

The 3rd round of the National League was held on Sunday last in Markievicz Park Sligo where the visitors on the day were Armagh.  The first half was a very evenly contested game with both sides defending their ground with score for score.  Sligo opened up the scoring with a series of points from Karen Maloney when an early goal from Armagh settled them into the game.  Shortly after the full back Etna Flanagan made her way up the field and with a series of precision passes the ball ended with Elaine O’Reilly and like in her previous games she made sure the back of the net was the target.  With Sligo having the upper hand it was short lived as Noelle Gormley, Sligo’s goal was caught to have pulled a player in the square resulting in a sin bin for her and a penalty for Armagh.  Number 6 Nicole Fowley stepped up to the mark and became keeper in the absence of Noelle and with her first job to fight off the Armagh penalty she did just that with a powerful save and a cheer from the crowd which undoubtedly helped Sligo drive on to close the first have with a tight scoreline of 1.5 (Sligo) to 1.4 (Armagh).  First half substation came when Karen Maloney was replaced with Laurn Boles.  The second half started with Sligo having an uphill battle as the wind was increasing in the favor of Armagh.  Sligo battled on and with both teams defending Armagh secured the first score of the half.  It took another 20 minutes for either side to score as each time grinded out possession.  Armagh had a few misses in the Second half which went in Sligo’s favor as they could not get a score on the board.  The two teams were very evenly matched in the first half but somehow Sligo lost the power to form scores and with a second Sligo Player sin-binned it was not looking good for the black and white.  Aine Gormley and Rachel Monaghan were brought on to help the cause but Armagh defended well with a constant line orange line of players blocking the Sligo Path.  Unfortunately Sligo failed to make a score in the second half allowing Armagh to push ahead and as the final whistle blew Armagh secured the victory 2.10 to Sligo’s 1.5.