Ruan 0-6   Truagh-Clonlara 1-2

A great 2nd half comeback display by Ruan delivered a hard fought victory on a score line of 0:6 to 1:2, making it 2 wins from 2 for them in the U14 A championship. Excellent skills and tenacity was in evidences from both sides. While Ruan were the first to put a point on the scoreboard much of the first half was played in the Ruan end of the pitch. The Ruan defence were solid and were winning and clearing anything coming their way in the early stages. However Truagh were on top in the middle of the pitch and were able to get the ball back into their forwards repeatedly. It took nearly 20 minutes but the pressure eventually told when a head high shot ricocheted into the Ruan net. This gave the visitors heart and shortly after added a point to their tally. The home team regrouped getting parity in the middle of the pitch for the last few minutes of the half. This steadied the ship and did not permit any further scoring chances to the visitors, and allowed themselves set up some attacks of their own, leading to two goal mouth scrambles, eventually cleared by the Truagh keeper. Just as a rain shower started the half ended 1:1 to a single point in favour of the visitors.

The second half, despite the lack of a noticeable breeze, saw a reversal of dominance with most of the play now in the Truagh end of the pitch. In the 1st 15 minutes Ruan upped their game, piled on the pressure, scoring 4 unanswered points to take the lead by one. In this period two more goal mouth scramble went without Ruan being able to finish to the net.The intensity was high again from both teams leading to a nail-biting finish for the supporters. 

Truagh working hard did get their flow going again and mounted a number of forays into the open spaces on the Ruan half, however they notched up only one point accompanied by a number of wides. With 5 minutes left Ruan took the lead with another long range point. The home team showed fabulous desire all the way to the finish and locked down the area of play not letting the ball return to their half all the way to the final whistle, depriving Truagh any time in the danger zone. The Ruan girls did have some further chance to extend the lead with some narrow misses, but this proved unnecessary as Ruan closed out a deserved win.

Ruan Team.

Emily Whelan; Mya O’Malley, Niamh Glass, Aimee Mc Donagh; Aine Jones, Sinéad Hastings (Captain), MeabhdhCasey; Aoife Anderson (0.4), Aisling Moloney; Neasa NíLachtnáin, Neasa Ní Ainiféin (0.1), Kate Forde (0.1); Alannah Mulqueen, Aoife Glass, Grainne Wynne.

Subs: Aoibhe Moran for G Wynne. Summer O’Brien, Saoirse Barry, Ella Forde.