A goal was the only thing on Aoibheann’s mind

The safe option might have been to go for an equalising point but when she got the ball in the dying second of Saturday’s CurrentAccount.ie LGFA All-Ireland IFC Club Semi-Final, Aoibheann Flynn had only one thought on her mind and that was goal!

Ballinamore Sean O’Heslins’ dramatic 1-10 to 1-8 victory over Steelstown Brian Ogs is the stuff of legend and fairytale as Aoibheann buried the ball in the back of the Derry club’s net to send her team to an All-Ireland Final in Croke Park with the last kick of the game.

But even with the pressure of the situation, the idea of playing it safe, taking her point and sending the game to extra-time never entered Aoibheann’s mind: “No, never entered my head,” admitted a laughing goal scorer, “There were people asking me afterwards would I not have thought of going for a point and bringing it to extra time. But I saw the goal in front of me and I just thought that’s it, this is going in the back of the net. Laura passed it to me and I said Laura will be annoyed if I don’t score this so I had to do it.”

The safe option might have been to go for an equalising point but when she got the ball in the dying second of Saturday’s CurrentAccount.ie LGFA All-Ireland IFC Club Semi-Final, Aoibheann Flynn had only one thought on her mind and that was goal!

Ballinamore Sean O’Heslins’ dramatic 1-10 to 1-8 victory over Steelstown Brian Ogs is the stuff of legend and fairytale as Aoibheann buried the ball in the back of the Derry club’s net to send her team to an All-Ireland Final in Croke Park with the last kick of the game.

But even with the pressure of the situation, the idea of playing it safe, taking her point and sending the game to extra-time never entered Aoibheann’s mind: “No, never entered my head,” admitted a laughing goal scorer, “There were people asking me afterwards would I not have thought of going for a point and bringing it to extra time.

“But I saw the goal in front of me and I just thought that’s it, this is going in the back of the net. Laura passed it to me and I said Laura will be annoyed if I don’t score this so I had to do it.”

Snatching victory from the jaws of defeat left Aoibheann somewhat stunned, even if she never doubted the resilience and self belief of her teammates: “Never in a million years did I think we’d pull that off but I’m buzzing. I don’t think we thought it was gone but we were hoping, in the last minute, that if we could just get to extra time, that it wasn’t gone for us and we kept working all the way to the wire. I’m just delighted we got the win.”

Ballinamore came through a similarly fraught encounter in the Connacht Final in Markievicz Park against Sligo’s Eoghan Rua but Aoibheann believes that pressure brings out the best in the Leitrim side: “We usually leave it really late, I don’t know why, it must be that when the pressure is there, the girls work extra hard, we really put our shoulders to the wheel to prove that we can.”

Next up for Aoibheann and her teammates is a trip to Croke Park for the All-Ireland Final against Cork’s Glanmire and its safe to say she is excited by the prospect: “Croke Park, what the hell! It is crazy! It is an amazing achievement to be here but imagine we won, we’d be going to Croke Park. It is every footballers’ dream.

“Sarah Mc has got to play in Croker, we’ve seen Eilish O’Dowd playing in Croke Park this year and when we went up to watch her play with Dublin, we never thought we’d be getting to play in Croke Park in the same year. I’d say there are a lot of plans being cancelled, meets up and Santa being cancelled.”

And Aoibheann stresses that Ballinamore’s heroes are not finished yet! “It has been an amazing year, we’ve just been going from strength to strength towards the end of the year and we’ll just keep pushing, keep going - there is an All-Ireland Final to win there for us. Wouldn’t it be a great Christmas present?”

Snatching victory from the jaws of defeat left Aoibheann somewhat stunned, even if she never doubted the resilience and self belief of her teammates: “Never in a million years did I think we’d pull that off but I’m buzzing. I don’t think we thought it was gone but we were hoping, in the last minute, that if we could just get to extra time, that it wasn’t gone for us and we kept working all the way to the wire. I’m just delighted we got the win.”

Ballinamore came through a similarly fraught encounter in the Connacht Final in Markievicz Park against Sligo’s Eoghan Rua but Aoibheann believes that pressure brings out the best in the Leitrim side: “We usually leave it really late, I don’t know why, it must be that when the pressure is there, the girls work extra hard, we really put our shoulders to the wheel to prove that we can.”

'Little Ballinamore are going to Croke Park!'

See the most incredible finish as a 62nd minute goal from Aoibheann Flynn wins the @currentacc_ie All Ireland IFC semi-final.

It's @BallinamoreSOH 0-10 @BrianOgs 1-8 as we join it with @JeromeQuinn & Clare Owens on commentary.. pic.twitter.com/TU0XAEgYMj

— Ladies Football (@LadiesFootball) December 2, 2023

Next up for Aoibheann and her teammates is a trip to Croke Park for the All-Ireland Final against Cork’s Glanmire and its safe to say she is excited by the prospect: “Croke Park, what the hell! It is crazy! It is an amazing achievement to be here but imagine we won, we’d be going to Croke Park. It is every footballers’ dream.

“Sarah Mc has got to play in Croker, we’ve seen Eilish O’Dowd playing in Croke Park this year and when we went up to watch her play with Dublin, we never thought we’d be getting to play in Croke Park in the same year. I’d say there are a lot of plans being cancelled, meets up and Santa being cancelled.”

Ballinamore Sean O'Heslins celebrate dramatic injury time win to reach All-Ireland Final - GALLERY

Wild celebrations in Ballinamore this evening as Ballinamore Sean O'Heslins grabbed a dramatic 1-10 to 1-8 victory over Derry's Steelstown Brian Ogs to qualify for the CurrentAccount.ie All-Ireland LGFA Intermediate Club Final. Observer photographer Willie Donnellan was a busy man with his camera capturing the celebrations ..... see who you can spot!

And Aoibheann stresses that Ballinamore’s heroes are not finished yet! “It has been an amazing year, we’ve just been going from strength to strength towards the end of the year and we’ll just keep pushing, keep going - there is an All-Ireland Final to win there for us. Wouldn’t it be a great Christmas present?”