Another final for Meath girls

With fire in their bellies and determination in their hearts, Meath took a step closer towards making up for the disappointment of 2007 by reaching the All-Ireland Junior Camogie Championship final with a resounding victory over Carlow at Naomh Peregrine, Blakestown on Saturday afternoon. Meath were fortunate that their game was first on the double bill at the Dublin venue because the second semi-final between Roscommon and Armagh had to be abandoned at half-time because of severe rainfall and threatening lightning. Meath"s victory over Carlow was not as straight-forward as the scoreline might suggest as a physically stronger Carlow side pinned Meath to their collars throughout the entertaining contest. When Carlow did have the upperhand Meath needed to call on the services of goalkeeper Emily Mangan to keep them in the contest and she made a number of fine saves to keep the Carlow girls at bay. With Mangan keeping them out at one end, Jane Dolan was doing the damage at the other with a personal tally of 2-7. Meath opened the scoring with a point from Lizzy Oakes, but Carlow had a sharp-shooter in excellent form with Mary Coady launching over four points in the opening period to keep Carlow in contention. There was nothing to choose between the teams for the majority of the opening period with never more than one score separating the sides. Dolan notched her first goal after 11 minutes, but Carlow bounced back and held Meath scoreless for the next 10 minutes before Dolan pointed to stretch Meath"s lead to two points. Three points in five minutes gave Carlow the initiative again, but Meath were determined and went into the break with a 2-4 to 0-7 advantage as Aileen Donnelly netted a fine goal after a Lizzy Lynch point. Meath settled after the resumption and played with greater structure and commitment. Oakes stretched Meath"s advantage with a fine point two minutes after the resumption, but Carlow were proving difficult to shrug off with Coady knocking over two frees. Dolan and Donnelly responded with points from play for Meath before Eilis O"Neill countered with a brace for Carlow. Four successive wides were followed by a scrambled goal from Lynch and that was just the inspiration needed. Dolan added a free before two superb saves from Mangan kept Carlow at bay. Lynch pointed again before Dolan cracked another goal following a fine pass from Laura Flynn. The Navan O"Mahonys girl also got on the scoresheet with a fine point and the result was beyond doubt before Carlow grabbed their only goal from a Valerie Crean shot three minutes before the end. Not satisfied with their comfortable margin, Meath continued to press hard in the closing stages and four more points from Dolan sealed the win and secured a place in the Nancy Murray Cup final for the second successive year. Meath - E Mangan; E McNally, L Donegan, K Ward; E Guy, A Donnelly (1-2), L Donoghue; L Flynn (0-1), A M Fagan; E Oakes (0-4), F Lynch, S Hackett; E Lynch (2-0), J Dolan (2-7), S Horan. Subs - H Geraghty for McNally, C Troy for Hackett, J Rispin for Lynch, A Keogh for Fagan. Carlow - M Walsh; P Whelan, C Byrne, T Wilson; M Hynes, T Condell, E Murphy; E Brennan (0-1), T Meaney; M Coady (0-7), V Crean (1-0), E O"Neill (0-2); L Abbey (0-10, L Condell (0-1), M Doyle.