It was a busy week for the Barna Ladies and Girls with three teams playing in various competitions.
The Ladies were out on Saturday in the Junior B Championship semi final against St Mary’s. Barna started slow but settled into the game with a well taken goal from Noreen Walshe followed by a brace of points from Aisling Flaherty to give Barna the lead, solid defending from Sinead Mc Cormac and Maire Flaherty and Katie Kilbane in goals restricted St Marys to two points going into half time. The half time talk from newly wed manager Enda Flaherty spurred the ladies on to great passages of play in the second half. With Laura Sharkey, Mellissa Casserley and Sarah Jane Flaherty gaining more control the Goals started to flow and goals from Ciara Lynagh, Aisling and two from Helen Feeney gave the Barna ladies a comfortable lead . St Marys never gave up but were no match for the Barna ladies on the day who won on a score line of 5-8 to 1-7.
The U16 team also had their Championship semi final against Monivea on Sunday, playing against a strong breeze in the first half the barna girls had to dig deep to restrict Monivea from scoring. With over twenty minutes gone Monivea began to break through and scored two goals and four points . The Barna girls showed great resolve in reducing Monivea to long range efforts and they would lead at half time by 2-6 to no score for Barna. This was always going to be the “game of two halves” and Barna produced their best 30 minutes of football to reduce the deficit as the half went on . The crucial goals came for Barna with ten minutes to go which brought them within four points. St Marys were awarded a penalty which went over the bar and this was followed by another point but the Girls kept fighting and were unlucky not to be awarded a penalty themselves. Four more points followed from Barna to leave the gap at two and a frantic finish ensued but the break of the ball didn’t fall kindly for the girls and they were defeated . It was a great team performance and the girls never gave up and on any other day they would of at least secured a draw or possibly a win. Monivea go on to play in the final and we wish them every success .
The U12 Girls played their second game in the championship against Oranmore Maree on Tuesday evening. The girls went into this game having secured the win against Annaghadown , played in breezy conditions the girls were playing into the wind and Oranmore made good use of this advantage in the first half to score some fine goals. It was always going to be tough for Barna in the second half but they also scored two fine goals but could not raise the green flag enough times and Oranmore Maree were the winners on the night.