Leitrim hammer Derry to win opening round of Ladies football league

LEITRIM 5-15

DERRY 1-2

Visitors Derry were overwhelmed by a new look Leitrim side on Sunday afternoon in rain soaked Aughawillan.

The weather conditions did not in any way prevent the home side from notching up a clear-cut and fully deserved 25 point victory at the end.

New Leitrim supremo, Jonny Garrity could not have asked for a better managerial start with his Connacht county side. Garrity's team had to field with several new players due to the retirement of many of last year's countryside. On the day all of Leitrim's newcomers performed impressively.

The win for Leitrim was achieved much more easily than expected. Despite a good early start for Derry when they enjoyed an eight minutes lead during the opening quarter their challenge fell apart completely after that.

Once Leitrim got motoring there was only one team that was going to win Sunday's clash. So easy was the win for Leitrim to achieve that it is difficult to really tell how they will perform when faced with more testing challenges in their remaining three league games.

Leah Fox on that attack against Derry. Picture: Willie Donnellan

Nevertheless all the new members of the Leitrim team including Dromahair's Eimear McHugh, St. Mary's Kasey Bruen, St. Brigid's Aisling Quinn and Ballinamore Sean O'Heslin's Mollie Murphy certainly adjusted well to the challenge of playing at the top level.

They all worked well together on Sunday with long established Leitrim team members like Charlene Tyrrell, Carla Le Guen, Vivienne Egan, Ailbhe Clancy, Leah Fox and Michelle Guckian. Going on how the new look Leitrim team performed against Derry the omens for Jonny Garrity's side seem promising.

Star of the show in the scoring stakes was Vivienne Egan with the Annaduff woman scoring a whopping 4-5, 3-2 of that total coming from play.

LEITRIM
SCORERS: Vivienne Egan 4 – 5 3f, pen; Síomha Quinn 1 – 0, Leah Fox 0 – 3; Laura O' Dowd, Ailbhe Clancy f & Michelle Guckian 0 – 2 each; Bronagh O'Rourke 0 – 1..

TEAM: Michelle Monaghan; Eimear McHugh, Charlene Tyrrell, Mollie Murphy; Sarah Reynolds, Kasey Bruen, Carla Le Guen: Megan McGovern, Aisling Quinn; Laura O'Dowd, Michelle Guckian, Síomha Quinn; Bronagh O'Rourke, Leah Fox, Elise Bruen.

SUBS: Ailbhe Clancy for S. Quinn (HT); Brigid O'Reilly for Reynolds & Aisling Gilmartin for A. Quinn (39); Michelle Guckian for K. Bruen (45); Éimhín Quinn for Tyrrell & Róisín McHugh for Fox (47); Caroline Guckian for Monaghan, Denise Stenson for McGovern, Rachel McIntyre for Egan & Jasmine Maye for Murphy (51); Shauna McLoughlin for Le Guen, Éabha Moyles for McHugh, Rachel Dolan for O'Dowd & Róisín McGenaghan for E. Bruen (57).

Full report and photos in Wednesday's Leitrim Observer