Oulart The Ballagh 2-17
Naomh Jude 2-13
Report by : We Are Dublin GAA
Former Wexford star Ursula Jacobs rolled back the years with a sparkling display of forward play in Oulart The Ballagh’s Leinster club championship semi final win over St Judes this afternoon.
Jacobs proved to be a constant thorn in the side of the Judes defence throughout, she was ably supported by current Wexford star Shelley Kehoe and between the two they accounted for 1-14 of Oulart’s scoring total.
Another to stand out in the Oulart attack was corner forward Louise Sinnott who finished the game with 1-02 to her name.
St Jude’s weren’t short of standout players themselves, Sinead Nolan was Judes main attacking threat with the corner forward proving deadly accurate from both open play and placed balls and finished with 1-06.
Ellie Young and Aisling Gannon were others to impress for Judes with both contributing two points apiece.
Oulart grabbed the first score of the game with a converted free from Ursula Jacobs. St Judes hit back with two quick fire points from play scored by Sinead Nolan and Ellie Young.
A point from Shelly Kehoe and a second successful free attempt from Jacobs gave Oulart the lead again but Sinead Nolan brought the sides level in the sixth minute from a free.
But over the next ten minutes Oulart The Ballagh outscored Judes by six points to one, Ursula Jacobs with four, two from play and two from frees and one each from Shelly Kehoe and Louise Sinnott with Judes solitary response coming from Leah Butler.
Judes needed a response and another converted free from Sinead Nolan was quickly followed by a cracking point from midfielder Niamh Gannon to leave three points between the teams.
With seven minutes left in the half it looked like Oulart had taken control of the game when Ursula Jacobs smashed the ball to the net and seconds later Shelley Kehoe tagged on a point to give the Wexford side a seven point lead.
But a minute later Judes hit the perfect response with Sinead Nolan burying the ball past Oulart goalkeeper Lauren Sinnott to cut the deficit to four.
Nolan was on hand again to score the last point of the half from a free to leave Judes trailing by three at the break with the score 1-10 to 1-07.
The sides swapped a point each inside the opening two minutes of the restart, Shelly Kehoe for Oulart and Niamh Gannon for St Judes.
Two minutes later and the Oulart lead was stretched out to six points thanks to Louise Sinnott who finished with aplomb to the net after some fine build up play.
Judes though as they had in the first half responded well to the concession of the goal with points from a Sinead Nolan free and one from play by Aisling Gannon.
Louise Sinnott grabbed her second point of the game to bring her tally to 1-02, but that score was quickly cancelled out with Sinead Nolan scoring her fifth successful free attempt to leave four points between the sides.
Oulart restored their six point lead with points from Anais Curran and Shelly Kehoe.
St Judes needed to cut into the lead or the game was in danger of running away from them and Ellie Young provided the perfect response, Judes were awarded a side-line cut out on the right wing, upped stepped Young who hit a brilliant cut straight over the bar for a two pointer to leave four between the teams with fourteen minutes left in the game.
Oulart though drove for home and three unanswered Shelly Kehoe points gave the Wexford side a seven point advantage with six minutes left on the clock.
In fairness to St Judes they never dropped the heads and pushed forward in the closing minutes in search of the goals they needed to turn the game around.
One did arrive late in stoppage time with Hannah Begley swinging on a high ball from a 45’ and directing it to the net. Unfortunately for Judes there wasn’t enough time to add to that score and Oulart The Ballagh ran out four point winners.
Naomh Jude Scorers
13. Sinéad Nolan 1-06 (5f)
19. Hannah Begley 1-00
11. Ellie Young 0-03 (1f)
9. Niamh Gannon 0-02
7. Leah Butler 0-01
14. Aisling Gannon 0-01
Oulart The Ballagh Scorers
13. Ursula Jacob 1-06 (4f)
11. Shelley Kehoe 0-08
15. Louise Sinnott 1-02
9. Anais Curran 0-01
Naomh Jude
1. Faye McCarthy
2. Clodagh Kilbane
3. Emily Browne
4. Claire Gannon
23. Sarah Joyce
6. Hannah Hegarty
5. Eimear O’Riordan
7. Leah Butler
9. Niamh Gannon
10. Aoife Walsh
11. Ellie Young
12. Caragh Dawson
8. Cliodhna Nicoletti
14. Aisling Gannon
13. Sinéad Nolan
Naomh Jude Substitutions
19. Hannah Begley for Dawson (46)
20. Helen O’Malley for Kilbane (48)
Oulart The Ballagh
1. Lauren Sinnott
2. Miria O’Dowd
3. Aideen Brennan
4. Katie Roche
5. Aoife Dunne
6. Ciara Storey
7. Mary Leacy
8. Stacey Kehoe
9. Anais Curran
10. Katie Gallagher
11. Shelley Kehoe
12. Siobhán Sinnott
13. Ursula Jacob
14. Una Leacy
15. Louise Sinnott
Oulart The Ballagh Substitutions
17. Shauna Sinnott for Siobhán Sinnott (51)