Byrne goal clinches the double for Cam Celtic women

Cam Celtic 1 Castlerea Celtic 0

By Eamon A. Donoghue

Aisling Byrne scored the only goal to clinch the double for Cam Celtic in the RDFL Women’s Challenge Cup final against Castlerea Celtic at Lecarrow last Sunday.

Castlerea had the Division 1 Cup in their cabinet and Cam Celtic were gunning for the double, having secured the league title following a 2-0 win over Kilkerrin United recently.

In what was an underwhelming cup final, both teams lined up with defensive tactics and strangely most of the game was played in one half of the field for the 90 plus minutes. There were perfect conditions with beautiful sunshine and no wind and, for some strange reason, both halves were mostly played on the Athlone end of the ground.

The curious tactics from both sides, particularly Cam, were hard to fathom. ‘If you don’t shoot, you won’t score’ says the old cliché, but Cam opted to shoot from almost every opportunity, such as from distances of around 30 metres out, which was asking a lot in terms of finding the net. Overall, both teams are probably much better than they displayed on this occasion.

The majority of the first half was played in Castlerea’s half, though both sides struggled to impose any control of the game. Castlerea sat back and cleared the ball anywhere they could and Cam attempted pot shots from outrageous distances.

Kate Nolan had the first shot on goal in the fifth minute, but her effort from distance never troubled the keeper. Nolan and Zara Deegan combined to force the first corner in the tenth minute. Nolan attempted an instinctive shot in the 13th minute and tried another ambitious effort in the 17th minute, but the Castlerea net remained intact.

Cam put together their best piece of combination play so far in the 35th minute. Marion Nolan and Deegan were involved in the build-up, before Kate Nolan’s attempt was deflected outside the post for a corner.

They were threatening more and the lead goal finally came for Cam in the 44th minute, but not before they should have conceded themselves.

Castlerea only entered the Cam half with any threat a few times in the first half. Just before the interval, a long clearance wasn’t dealt with by two Cam defenders and Aoife Smyth got in behind the cover, but her finish was weak and was saved by Shauna Walsh in the Cam goal.

Almost immediately, the ball went up the other end, with Deegan crossing and Byrne finishing to the net for a 44th-minute goal which ultimately proved the winner. Castlerea could feel like they had hit by a sucker punch but in truth, if they had scored themselves, it would have come totally against the run of play. The southern outfit led 1-0 at half-time and that’s how it finished.

After the turnaround, for some reason the ball was mostly in the same half of the field as the first half, with Castlerea pinning Cam back in their own half. Cam dropped midfielder Byrne to a deeper role and that didn’t help their efforts to be productive going forward. Their defensive approach could have backfired but Castlerea failed to pose any real threat.

Besides long clearances that put the defence under pressure and caused them to make errors, Cam didn’t threaten Margaret Diggins in the Castlerea goal in the second half.

The game petered out with substitutions made by both sides and Cam holding on rather comfortably and Castlerea struggling to create any genuine goalscoring chances.

Cam Celtic will be happy that they have now retained the double, having also won both trophies last season, reinforcing their status as the best women’s team in the RDFL. Overall, they were the better side in this cup final and deserved the win.

Player of the match: Aisling Byrne (Cam Celtic). The scorer of the winning goal, Byrne was also a wall between midfield and defence, especially in the second half. Kate Nolan was also a constant presence at midfield and those two players played a crucial role in the outcome. Reece Higgins was best for Castlerea Celtic.

Cam Celtic: Shauna Walsh, Keeley Sammon, Laoise O’Brien, Alaine Morris, Rebecca Collins, Kate Nolan, Zara Deegan, Aisling Byrne, Aoife Coyle, Ciara Murphy, Marion Nolan. Subs used: Karen Carty, Emer Kelly, Edel Carroll and Aimee O’Carroll.

Castlerea Celtic: Margaret Diggins, Sarah Cox, Rachel Harte, Aine Keenan, Maggie Bermingham, Reece Higgins, Katie McIntyre, Holly Hopkins, Rachel Gormley, Aoife Smyth, Clodagh Diggins. Subs used: Chloe Donnellan, Megan Flanagan and Brid Moran.

Referee: Eugene Deering.

*See this week's Westmeath Independent for more photos from the game.