St. Dallan’s Primary School sent two girls’ Gaelic teams to take part in the Allianz Cumann na mBunscol Girls’ FootballBlitz in Kilcoo last Friday, 29th April. For the majority of Team B, this was their first opportunity to don the school jersey. They faced stiff opposition, but represented St. Dallan’s well in each of their matches.
Meanwhile, Team A qualified to proceed to the next round at the end of May after winning three out of their four matches. Their first match was against a strong team from St. Malachy’s, Castlewellan who won comfortably 4-2 to 0-2. With this being their first competitive match of the outdoor season, the girls needed time to settle to the occasion. They were just beginning to find their stride towards the end of this match with points from Agata Goralik and Lauren Quinn.
They were, however, undeterred by this tough start to the blitzand, with no break, went straight on to hold St. Patrick’s, Mayobridge, scoreless in their second match, winning 2-2 to 0-0; Aimee Kelly and Vivien Krajcovicova both finding the back of the net and the two point scorers from the previous match again adding to their tally.
The third match was against the Ballyholland B team. Again, the girls were able to assert themselves well in this match with Aimee Kelly continuing her relentless attacks and scoring a further two goals.
The final match of the day was against Burrenreagh P.S. The pressure was on for this match as the Warrenpoint girls knew there was a chance of being the runner-up qualifier from their group. They worked well together and continued their winning ways with a 2-1 to 0-1 win to seal a place in the Finals blitz at the end of May. Aimee Kelly scored both goals in this match and Lauren Quinn put the ball over the bar after a run from midfield for her third point of the day. Orlaith Breen proved herself to be an outstanding goalkeeper; her quick hands and feet saw off a few goal threats. Shannon Doyle, Muirin Sneddon and Sinead McCartan were all super in defence, as the low scoreline for most of the opposing teams would confirm. Lauren Breen’s sharp instincts led to a steady supply of good balls to the forward line with AgataGoralik and Vivien Krajcovicova making good use of them despite a strong defensive setup from each of the opposing teams.
