Ruan second time round

Ruan 5-7  Feakle  2-3

It was the same place, same time, same teams, same huge support and the same sun-drenched day, albeit one week later, but that is where the similarities ended in this junior B final replay between two sides that were hungry for victory.
Ruan, who had not fielded at adult level for the last seven years and Feakle, who were hoping to emulate their intermediate success of 2001, both had high hopes. In the first match, Ruan snatched victory from Feakle with a last-minute Lauren O’Donoghue equaliser.
The sides had an evenly matched first half with Vera Loughnane opening Feakle’s account with a pointed free after 10 minutes. Alice Casey raised a white flag for Ruan a minute later. Casey pushed her side into a three point lead when her free found the Feakle net. Two more Casey points stretched that lead but Feakle fought back with a vengeance, with Colette Purcell pointing for her side and Loughnane zipping through the Ruan defence and rattling the net with an unstoppable shot to leave her side within a point of the opposition at the break.
Ruan had two more points on the board three minutes into the second half with a pointed free and a 45’ from Casey. Play ebbed and flowed for the next 10 minutes, with both sets of defenders guarding their patches valiantly. In the 13th minute a Loughnane point brought the deficit back to two points. A cracking goal from Ruan’s Rebecca Crowe in the 15th minute turned the tide. Ruan, and Crowe, in particular, were unstoppable for the rest of the half, with Crowe notching up a further 1-2, Casey matching that tally and Tasha Hynes finding the net from the rebound when Casey’s 45’ came off the upright.
Vera Loughnane grabbed a consolation goal for her side in the dying moments of the half but it was Ruan captain Claire McDonnell  who proudly accepted the junior B trophy from her Ruan clubmate and county PRO, Bríd MacNamara, much to the delight of the large crowd of supporters.

Ruan: Niamh Lyons; Emily Mulqueen, Nicola O’Donoghue; Brenda O’Donoghue, Claire McDonnell, Edel O’Regan; Rebecca Crowe (2-1), Eadoin Fitzgerald; Anne O’Regan, Alice Mahony, Lauren O’Donoghue; Alice Casey (2-6), Tasha Hynes (1-0).
Subs: Sandra Lynch for Tasha Hynes.
Feakle: Pauline Rochford; Siobhán Tuohy, Ciara Minogue, Lisa McGrath; Sarah McGuinness, Sharon Naughton; Colette Purcell (0-1), Clodagh McDonnell; Louise O’Halloran, Clodagh Gray, Mary Kate Moloney; Vera Loughnane (2-2), Lauren Guilfoyle.
Referee: Aidan Ryan, Parteen.