Senior ladies continue unbeaten start with convincing victory

Ladies NFL Division 3

Cavan 3-15

Down 1-8

Aideen Coyle at Burren GFC

After a nervy opening encounter with Louth a week earlier, Cavan ladies made the journey to Burren to take on the 2024 Ulster Intermediate champions, Down. The Mourne county recorded two convincing wins over Cavan last season, therefore a difficult fixture was expected. Emmet Daly made two changes to his starting team who beat Louth by two points in round one with Aisling Gilsenan and Hannah Gilsenan coming into the starting line-up.

In contrast to round one, Cavan came out of the blocks at a ferocious pace, hitting 1-4 without reply inside the opening 10 minutes, helping them to a four-point lead at half-time.

And Daly’s charges hit their groove after the resumption as they registered a further 1-5 on the bounce to open up a commanding lead which led them to their second consecutive victory.

Aisling Gilsenan opened the scoring with a free from an acute angle followed by two close-range frees from Lauren McVeety. With eight minutes on the clock, Cavan pushed their lead to four with Catherine Dolan pointing their first from open play after a clever pass from McVeety. A minute later, the lead was seven after captain Shauna Lynch set defence into attack with a brilliant turnover. Lynch combined with her clubmate McVeety with Dolan firing to the roof of the net seconds later.

Midway through the half, Niamh King opened the hosts’ scoring followed by two more points on the trot. Aine Smyth pointed from distance followed by a superb strike from Vivienne McCormack to bring the deficit to four points. As half time approached both sides added a further two scores to their tally. Evelyn Baugh found Sinead Greene with the resulting kick-out and after a quick transition McVeety pointed her third and first from play.

Moments later, she converted another free after excellent play from Dolan and the hardworking Micaela Fitzpatrick. Eimear Fitzpatrick pointed from distance at the opposite end and moments later her side had a goal chance fall to Niamh McClory but the forwar’ds shot was superbly blocked by Fitzpatrick. Smyth closed the half’s scoring, leaving the scoreline 1-6 to 0-5 at the break.

Cavan picked up where they left off after the resumption, firing over a further 1-5 as they continued to assert their dominance on the round two clash. Shanise Fitzsimons and Aishling Sheridan got their names on the scoresheet after good play from youngster Ellie Brady created the Mullahoran woman’s score. Gilsenan fisted over a second of the game with Fitzpatrick winning the resulting kickout. The midfielder found McVeety with the pass who pointed from a tight angle to extend the margin to eight.

With eight minutes played in the second half Gilsenan netted after an excellent team move. Shanise Fitzsimons played a brilliant pass into the path of the outstanding McVeety.

The forward gathered the ball in the square and managed to find Gilsenan with a pass under pressure to raise Cavan’s second green flag. Cavan were reduced to 14 players as Ellyanna Madden was shown a yellow card but managed to outscore Down in this timeframe. McVeety found Hannah Gilsenan in space to point her first of the campaign.

With 13 minutes played, Down had their first attack of the half, resulting in an Eimear Fitzpatrick point which was instantly cancelled out by one from Niamh Keenaghan who pointed an excellent score with her first contribution off the bench. Fitzpatrick and McVeety traded a point apiece as the Mourne county hit a further 1-1 after Madden was issued her second yellow card minutes after returning to the field.

McCormick pointed her second followed by their sole goal of the tie as Fitzpatrick punished a misplaced pass in the Cavan backline. As full-time approached, Cavan added a further hat-trick of scores with points from Sheridan and Dolan. The final score went to McVeety who calmly slotted home from the penalty spot after Sheridan was fouled in the square after a speedy counter-attacking move between Ellie Brady, Dolan and Sheridan.

Next up for Cavan is their first home game of 2025 as they welcome Carlow to Kingspan Breffni next Sunday at 2pm.

Cavan: Evelyn Baugh, Eimear Corcoran, Sinead Kelly, Sophie Daly, Sinead Greene, Shauna Lynch, Hannah Gilsenan 0-01, Micaela Fitzpatrick, Ellyanna Madden, Catherine Dolan 1-02, Lauren McVeety 1-06 (1-04f), Shanise Fitzsimons 0-01, Ellie Brady, Aishling Sheridan 0-02 (1f), Aisling Gilsenan 1-02

Subs used: Niamh Keenaghan 0-01 for S. Fitzsimons, Niamh McCorry for A. Gilsenan, Lucy Crowe for S. Daly, Deribhile McCaffrey for C. Dolan

Down: Catherine Byrne, Ciara McCreanor, Katie Howlett, Eireann Gallen, Meghan Doherty, Clara Mulvenna, Natalie McKibbin, Erin Sands, Niamh McClory, Aine Smyth 0-02, Eimear Fitzpatrick 1-03 (1f), Laoise Duffy, Vivienne McCormack 0-02, Niamh King 0-01, Aoife Laverty

Subs used: Shanna Fettes for L. Duffy