Battling St Catherine’s U-16s go down to Shelbourne  in National Trophy last eight

St Catherine’s were squeezed out by Shelbourne in their U-16 SFAI Subway National Trophy quarter-final at Emerald Park on Saturday afternoon. 

And the game certainly didn’t disappoint as both teams provided excellent football and entertainment with nine goals scored in total in front of a sizable home crowd.

It was the Saints that hit the front first when Nicole Miller snuck in behind the Shelbourne defence to connect sweetly with her left foot from a floated free kick that beat the away keeper low to her left hand side.

On 20 minutes Shelbourne equalised when the home midfield failed to secure possession and a low defence splitting pass saw the brave Lucy Foley slide the ball past the advancing home keeper.

The Shelbourne side that defeated St Catherine's at the weekend

Five minutes later St Catherine’s were awarded a free kick on the edge of the Shels D. Up stepped the Saints’ best player on the day, Mollie Elliott, and she strike low and hard past the wall for a 2-1 lead.

On 35 minutes the sides were back level when the excellent Julie B stepped up from centre half to take a long-range free kick that caught the helping breeze and floated all the way to the back of the net.

Shelbourne we’re now turning on the heat and the Saints were trying desperately to remain level at the break but just couldn’t clear their lines on the stroke of half time when a low ball across the face of goal was calmly slotted home by Lucy Foley for her second of the afternoon.

With the second half only five minutes old we witnessed a superb and strong burst into the box from Ellie McGonagle who deserved to find herself with an easy tap in to make it 4-2 after evading some heavy defensive tackles.

The away team started to empty the bench and in their case a strong bench, one of which was Chloe Channol who scored two superb individual efforts on the bounce to give the away team a commanding 6-2 lead .

St Catherine’s kept battling and got their just rewards on 65 minutes when the tenacious Katie O’Neill won a crucial tackle in midfield and played a lobbing ball over the Shels centre halves where Sheena Gillespie got the well deserved last touch past the Shelbourne keeper for 6-3.

The score remained this way up until the final whistle for a well deserved win for Shelbourne but they were made to work for their victory by an excellent St Catherine’s team who held their own against such top quality opposition. 

St Catherine’s team: Naoisa Gillespie (Carrick), Etain Getins (Killybegs), Katie O’Neill (Killybegs), Dervla Hardy (Glen), Bronagh Heaghty (Glen), Ellen Boyle (Ardara), Molly Elliott (Ardara), Emma Diver (Kilcar), Emma Cunningham (Glen), Nicole Fuller (Glen), Saoirse Gillespie (Killybegs), Sienna Gillespie (Killybegs), Orlaith O’Donnell (Killybegs), Trinity Kelly (Killybegs), Emma McAillig (Killybegs), Bella Sharkey (Glen).