Senior ACL 14th May 2023

Piltown 3-09 James Stephens 1-11

By Jason O’Brien, Piltown PRO

Goals win games is a well worn saying.

And in fairness, its correct usually , and it was proven here in Piltown on a muggy, overcast morning that spilt some rain onto two committed teams.

Piltown got the perfect start as a great move resulted in Leah Cooney raising the green flag after 5minutes from a good pass from Niamh Culleton , who had  received a pass to hand from Laura Norris.

You couldn’t ask for a better start really, and that was added to from a free by Sinead McCarthy in the 9^th minute.

The Village weren’t panicking though, and their number 12 stood over a free in the 10^th minute and confidently put it between the uprights , and she scored again when she picked up a loose pass around the 45 and put it back over the bar. Aine Doyle scored her first of the day when she picked up a loose puck out, and the puck outs were a problem for James Stephens as Piltown won a lot of them in the first half , and put the lead back to three points after 15 minutes.

That seemed to kick start a scoring spree as Piltown scored 6 points in as many minutes, while the Village came back with a goal from an under struck 45 that was picked up by Tara Murphy , and she gave stand in keeper Heather Phelan no hope from close range.
A lot of seemingly scorable wides from the home side was keeping The Village in touch and they scored another 2 frees to leave the half time score – Piltown 1-07 James Stephens 1-04.

Its not that common to score a goal in the first minute of each half, but Niamh Culleton made it happen as she broke through and from almost on the end line, she looped the ball over Hannah Larkins head and into the net. A great start to the second half from the home side, and Aine Doyle added another point to further stretch the lead, until Rachel Leahy and Ciara Delaney raised white flags for the visitors to keep the game withing their reach.
The wide count in this half was lower than the first , but the frees for James Stephens were mounting up, and counting up, as they scored the next 4 points from frees from the hurley of number 12.

Piltown kept driving on though. With Emer Long leading the charge from centre back, and Laura Norris from full back, Ellen OKeeffe wasn’t as prominent as she usually is, but she still got a point from play.
At the 50 minute mark, the lead was four points and the game was well in the melting pot as James Stephens turned up the pressure.
But how the game changed on two incidents.

The first one was when a James Stephens shot hit the upright high, and bounced low , there was a mighty pull, a narrow miss and the ball was cleared down the field by Emily McCarthy.

The second one was when Aine Doyle got the ball about 50 yards from goal out near the touchline and hit a speculative shot towards the goal. It was too short to go over the bar, and looked destined to land in the keepers lámh, but the greasy wet sliotar slipped from her hand, and somehow landed in the net.
This put 5 between the teams, and Tara Murphy’s second point of the game brought the game to an end with the final score : Piltown 3-09 James Stephens 1-11.

It was an entertaining game, with plenty for both sides to work on for the rest of the season.

Scorers :

Piltown
Aine Doyle 1-04

Leah Cooney 1-01

Sinead McCarthy 0-02 (2frees)

Chloe Holden 0-01

Niamh Culleton 1-00

Ellen OKeeffe 0-01

James Stephens

Tara Murphy 1-01

Rachel Leahy 0-01

Ciara Delaney 0-01

No 12      0-08  (not named)