FERMANAGH manager CJ McGourty hailed the exceptional display of Eimear Smyth as they captured the TG4 All-Ireland junior title for the third time in eight years at Croke Park.
Smyth struck 1-9 in an awesome display as Fermanagh held off a spirited challenge from Louth in an entertaining final.
“I said all year she is an exceptional talent, but when she’s knocking on your door every day looking to get better, that’s a sign of a world class player,” said McGourty.
“Every night she’s coming to training, she’s looking at a different wee move or a different jink to learn, or trying to improve her game. There’s loads of them like that and in the championship moments when you’ve an extra wee move to get out of trouble, they count for a lot. Not only her, everyone is a credit.”
Fermanagh led by 1-5 to 0-5 at the break after Smyth found the net after ten minutes and did enough after the restart to claim the title.
“Unbelievable feeling. I can’t say enough about that group of players, just fantastic,” added McGourty. “They’ve played the championship minutes like we’ve asked them to do all year down the stretch. I think we kept the ball for about the last two and a half minutes, up until 10 seconds to go, which is really important in a tight game, just to try and see it out.
“It wasn’t outstanding, but it was good enough to get the result and those girls hadn’t won in Croke Park, ever. Now they have and that’s a credit to them.”
While Kate Flood ended the action with 0-8 to her name, Louth fell short in their quest to claim a record-breaking fourth final victory at this grade.
“I think in both halves we had a chance to go ahead of Fermanagh,” said Louth manager Paul Hanlon. “We kept going, we thought when he came out in the second half that we’d take them. We thought they were getting a wee bit tired, but they seemed to have pushed on.
“We were very confident going into the last 15, we were definitely. Especially when we made those two subs, we thought we’d kick on from that and we didn’t. If you look at the last games we played, the last 15, 20 minutes we were very strong, and we were actually waiting for those last 15 to come in, just to see if we would kick on. It just didn’t happen today.It just wasn’t Louth’s day.”
An Aoife Russell score for Louth reduced the interval deficit to two points on the resumption, before Louth goalkeeper Rebecca Lambe Fagan pulled off two excellent saves from Fermanagh attacker Niamh McManus in the space of 60 seconds. McManus also rattled the post from an rebounded strike after the first of these shots was turned away.
Fermanagh did eventually reinforce their authority with Blaithin Bogue and Smyth points, but the sin-binning of Ciara Clarke after 40 minutes did come as a blow for the Erne women. By the time the Knockninny Gaels corner-back returned to the field of play, Louth had cut the gap to the bare minimum thanks to three points from Flood and one from substitute Mischa Rooney.
Smyth had split the uprights at the opposite end to ensure Fermanagh stayed in the ascendancy and she added another free to her outstanding haul before Flood did likewise on 52 minutes. Even though the latter kept Louth in contention with an eighth point, the imperious Smyth raised white flags either side of it to seal the win.
Scorers – Fermanagh: E Smyth 1-9 (0-6f), B Bogue 0-2.
Louth: K Flood 0-8 (7f), N Rice 0-2, A Russell, M Rooney 0-1 each.
FERMANAGH: M Maguire; C Clarke, M McGloin, E Keenan; S McQuade, C Murphy, C Bogue; B Bannon, L Maguire; D Maguire, J Doonan, A McCabe; B Bogue, E Smyth, N McManus. Subs: B Smyth for McManus (49),S Britton for D Maguire (57).
LOUTH: R Lambe Fagan; L Byrne, E Murray, E Hand; H Lambe Sally, A Breen, C Nolan; A Halligan, E Byrne; L White, A Russell, C McDonald; N Rice, K Flood, S Matthews. Subs: M Rooney for Lambe Sally (h-t), C O’Reilly for McDonald (49), R O’Connor Leonard for Russell (52), C Boyle for Matthews, K Doheny for White (both 60).
Referee: Gerard Canny (Mayo).
