Kate Brennan goals send Ballinrobe into All-Ireland final

ALL-IRELAND PPS SENIOR C CHAMPIONSHIP

Ballinrobe Community School 5-7

Dominican College (Antrim) 2-11

(after extra-time)

In Ballyshannon

They certainly made it unnecessarily difficult on themselves. But leading by eight points after 38 minutes wasn't enough for Ballinrobe to book their ticket to the All-Ireland final in normal time. The match had to be decided in extra-time.

The victory had a lot of architects but a stellar performance from Kate Brennan, who scored 2-2, was central. her second goal came in the crucial first half of extra-time. 

Brennan raised her first green flag just half a minute into the second half, right from the throw-in. And then, in extra-time, the midfielder repeated the feat, and buried the ball in the net after only 15 seconds. 

She grabbed kick-outs from high up in the air, outmuscled and outran her opponents, sprayed kick-passes and was composed in front of the goal. A lethal player-of-the-match performance.

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Team captain Ali Hughes and Róise Burke were also outstanding. So was goalkeeper Kayla Hughes, whose kick-outs were a joy to behold, almost with remote-controlled precision, finding the open teammate. Hughes also pulled off several saves to frustrate Dominican College's goal chances.

The Mayo girls had been dominating their Antrim opponents in the first 38 minutes. They squeezed them in midfield and tightened up their defence. The Belfast girls had only managed to score two points until that stage of the game.

Then, slowly but surely they came to life and scored four points in-a-row. The game, which a few minutes earlier had almost seemed decided, suddenly became hectic and the momentum thoroughly shifted.

Ballinrobe were up by three points, when the Ulster champions staged a last attempt. The ever dangerous Aoibheann Monaghan wriggled herself free from a defender and sent a rocket into the top corner which silenced the otherwise vocal Ballinrobe support.

It came like a bolt from the blue and the game went into extra-time.

But any expectations of a thriller right down to the wire were quickly dampened, as Brennan took the game by the scruff of the neck. 

She collected the throw-in herself, stormed forward and then played a neat one-two with Chloe Stagg. Brennan then beat two more defenders to drive through and rattle the net.

Monaghan answered with a point. But Ballinrobe were undeterred and it was Brennan again, with yet another ball buried in Dominican's net.

The Mayo girls kept the pressure up and scored two points, followed by their fifth goal of the afternoon, elegantly finished by Ali Hughes, with the outside of the boot.

There was no coming back from this for Dominican College. They had valiantly clawed their way back into the game to force extra-time, but eventually, Ballinrobe simply had more in the tank in extra-time to finish the job. 

The team managed by Mayo LGFA chairperson Sinéad Stagg advanced to the All-Ireland final.

A full match report will be carried in Tuesday's Mayo News.