Portlaoise dispose of Park/Ratheniska to move into the semi-final

LOETB Ladies SFC Gr B Rd 3 

Portlaoise 6-10 

Park/Ratheniska 0-3 

PORTLAOISE are straight through to the semi-finals of this year’s LOETB Laois LGFA Senior Championship after they comfortably dispatched of Park/Ratheniska on Saturday evening.

The Town’s victory coupled with Sarsfields’ win over St Joseph’s sees them finish top of Group B and have the advantage of an extra week off.

Portlaoise kicked into a huge breeze straight down the field, but they got off to a perfect start when Grainne Moran finished to the back of the net after great play from Ciara Crowley and Fiona Dooley in the build-up. Portlaoise kept their foot on the pedal and scored three more points unanswered to lead 1-3 to no score after four minutes. Ellen Healy fisted the ball over before Moran pointed from play and from a free.

Park/Ratheniska’s evening went from bad to worse in the 9th minute when Grace Cunningham was shown a yellow card for a high tackle on Susie Delaney. Laura Crawford finally got the home side off the mark before Ellen O’Byrne took her side’s tally to two points.

Portlaoise were in no mood to let up as they finished the half with a further 3-2 to seal the victory by half-time. Leah Loughman kicked her first of the evening before Moran drilled a free from the 14-yard straight into the top-corner. Moran’s hat-trick was completed in the 25th minute after she played a one-two with Delaney.

Moran was also involved in the fourth Portlaoise goal as she received a pass from Crowley to tee up Loughman to raise a green flag. Lara Culleton split the posts to see Portlaoise into a commanding lead at the break, 4-5 to 0-2.

The second-half was more of the same for The Town as they just kept adding to the scoreboard in Ratheniska. Moran got the second-half’s scoring underway with Delaney following suit soon after. Healy got her second point of the evening before a fifth goal came the way of Portlaoise when Moran raised her fourth green flag.

The goals kept flowing as Crowley got her name on the scoresheet. From that kick-out, Park/Ratheniska were again reduced to 14 players as goalkeeper Meadbh Dunne pulled down Crowley with Moran tapping over the resulting free. Grace Cunningham ended up getting a score down the other end just before Loughman scored the game’s final point.

SCORERS:

Portlaoise: Grainne Moran 4-4 (1-2fs), Leah Loughman 1-2, Ciara Crowley 1-0, Ellen Healy 0-2, Lara Culleton and Susie Delaney 0-1 each.

Park/Ratheniska: Laura Crawford, Ellen O’Byrne (f) and Grace Cunningham 0-1 each.

PORTLAOISE: Keeva O’Reilly; Ella McNulty, Deirdre Phelan, Sarah Fleming; Rebecca Reddin, Aishling Saunders, Ciara Crowley; Fiona Dooley, Ellen Healy; Lara Culleton, Grainne O’Reilly, Susie Delaney; Shauna Dooley, Grainne Moran, Leah Loughman.

Subs: Faye Brown for S Dooley (36m), Aoibhe O’Brien for Phelan (42m).

PARK/RATHENISKA: Meadbh Dunne; Clodagh Fingleton, Niamh Dunne, Ciara Conroy; Grace Cunningham, Mia Delaney, Mary O’Hara; Keeva Fingleton, Aine Nolan; Tara Byrne, Ellen O’Byrne, Sophie Delahunt; Ailbhe Griffin, Danielle Brennan, Laura Crawford.

Subs: Poppy Duff for Delahunt (26m), Adah Ramsbottom for Brennan (37m), Emer Brennan for Conroy (46m), Rachel O’Connell for Crawford (51m), Emma Finn for E Brennan (63m).

Referee: Michael Tarpey (Kilcavan)