St Fursey’s 2-12

Grainne Mhaols 3-8

By Stephen Glennon at Tuam Stadium

ST Fursey’s of Headford’s long quest to secure intermediate status has finally been realised, after they overcame a plucky Grainne Mhaols outfit in a fascinating Junior ‘A’ county ladies football decider at Tuam Stadium on Sunday.

Years of chasing Junior ‘A’ honours – and, by extension, leaving behind the quagmire of junior football for the higher echelon of intermediate fare – is a huge boost to the club and it will be interesting to see how they adapt to their new environment in 2025.

Defensively, they have some work to do, from restarts to set-up, but going forward they will cause a lot of teams problems, particularly when Aoife Molloy, who missed this game through injury, returns to action next summer.

In the end, it was a goal fit to win any county final in any code at any grade – netted by player of the match Alisha O’Malley seven minutes from full-time – that secured St Fursey’s the silverware.

It was a thing of beauty, as industrious midfielder Shauna Molloy picked off a Grainne Mhaols kickout and delivered a superb pass down the outside channel to O’Malley.

From there, the centre-half forward still had work to do, but shrugging off a brace of challenges, O’Malley cut inside before kicking a screamer to Lisa Coohill’s net. It saw St Fursey’s take a 2-11 to 3-6 lead – an advantage the victors added to when Lorraine Meehan stole another Grainne Mhaols restart and set up Eimear O’Kane for her fifth point.

Leading by three points coming down the home stretch, it should have been comfortable for St Fursey’s – yet it wasn’t. Two Mairead Coyne frees reduced the deficit to a single point in the closing stages, but the Connemara outfit were left to rue another brace of wides that could have – and should have – secured them a positive result late on.

Grainne Mhaols had St Fursey’s well and truly pinned back in their own half during this epoch – winning a string of Headford kickouts – and it was not until Alisha Cosgrove found substitute Rebecca Devine with a restart in injury-time that the siege was lifted.

Pictured: Ger Lyons of the Galleon Restaurant, Salthill (sponsors) presenting the Junior A Cup to St. Fursey’s Captain Deirdre Coleman after their final victoery over Grainne Mhaols at Tuam Stadium on Sunday. Photo: john McDermott.