Ballymackey Senior Women had a 3-2 win at home to Lough Derg. With fixtures coming thick and fast at Senior and U18 a large injury list saw us take the field with the bare 11 and no subs. With 2 goalkeepers injured and a 3rd away for the day, captain Dani Slattery took the responsibility on her own shoulders and donned the number 1 jersey. Lough Derg were very much up for the match and were a different proposition from the inexperienced side we played in preseason and they fronted up to us in what was a physical encounter. After a 15 minutes settling in period Ballymackey started to find ways of playing through the Lakesider’s defense and after a couple of deft passes in a packed defence the ball found Aoibhín Delaney who managed to shift the ball on to her left and finish over the keepers head. Joanne O Brien looked our most likely scorer of a second with her trademark well timed runs from midfield and so it proved when she met a great through ball to finish just before the advancing keeper. The girls looked well in control at this stage but a lapse in concentration as we played out from the back saw Lough Derg score a excellent goal to leave the minimum in it at half time. With 6 players who had 90 hard minutes of football played 24 hours earlier in our U18 girls cup semi final, we were not going to be able to play out the second half at the high tempo we prefer and clever game management was required. The girls managed to maintain good control over the match, denying the visitors any clear sight of the goal. Their patience in possession was rewarded with 15 minutes left when good play down the right saw a fine low cross being met at the back post by Michaela Lillis, who finished emphatically to the net. The 2 goal cushion saw Ballymackey perhaps relax too much again and give away a free in a dangerous position for Lough Derg to score. Lough Derg put everything into the last few minutes in search of an equaliser but Ballymackey maintained good possession to see out the match. Fantastic character was shown by our girls throughout this match, some of the girls had to dig deep in their second 90 minutes in 24 hours to maintain their usual high work rate. Some of the girls took some big hits in the game and just dusted themselves down and got on with the match showing tremendous Sporting conduct throughout. A great team effort with excellent performances from Laura Mc Carthy, Michaela Lillis. Laura Bergin and the Referees player of the match Aoibhín Delaney
