Bord Gáis Energy Ladies NFL Division 4 Semi Final – Limerick 0-8 Louth 0-7

Limerick defeated Louth by just a single point, 0-8 to 0-7, in the other semi-final played at Crettyard, Laois. Louth were on top for much of the game but paid the price for missed chances as the Shannonsiders squeezed through to the final. Jenny McGuinness was off-target with a late free that would have taken the game into extra-time but the forward’s effort went agonizingly wide. McGuinness did finish as Louth’s leading scorer, however, with 0-3 while Dymphna O’Brien hit a similar tally for Limerick.

Ann Eager’s Limerick side had to come from a point down at half-time, 0-3 to 0-4, to book their place in the showpiece decider, where the winners will gain promotion to Division 3. Eager admitted: “It looked like Louth were going to destroy us in the early stages. We’re notoriously slow starters and it wasn’t good for the heart out there! It was nail-biting stuff and you’d have to feel sorry for Louth as well.”

Bord Gáis Energy Ladies NFL Division 4 semi-final results:

Longford 3-17, Offaly 1-08

Limerick 0-08, Louth 0-07

Match Preview

LGFA; Bord Gáis Energy Ladies NFL Division 4 semi-finals;

By Jackie Cahill

LIMERICK boss Ann Eager has described next Sunday’s Bord Gáis Energy Ladies National Football League Division 4 semi-final showdown with Louth as a “huge” game.

Ladies Football top brass changed the format of the League this year, with the previous two up, two down promotion and relegation system replaced with one up, one down.

In recent years, the finalists in Divisions 2, 3 and 4 were automatically promoted but in the coming weeks, the top four in each of those groupings will battle it out for just one promotion place.

And Eager admitted: “That was a bit disappointing. Going back a few years, if you got to the final, you were promoted. But we don’t make the rules.”

Eager, a native of Kerry, is an experienced coach and has been involved with a number of club sides in recent years.

She is a former PRO with the Kerry ladies board and took over the Shannonsiders from ex-Limerick footballer Tommy Stack, who stepped down at the end of the 2011 campaign.

In the group stages, Eager guided Limerick to a second place finish behind table-toppers Longford, with just one defeat in five matches.

Limerick will now play Louth in next Sunday’s semi-final at Crettyard and when the sides met earlier this season, Limerick needed a last-minute goal from Claire O’Riordan to snatch a 2-4 to 0-9 win.

Looking ahead to the rematch, Eager reflected: “It’s huge, absolutely huge. This is a new Limerick team and I was told that from the 2010 and 2011 panels, 21 players have gone. We have a lot of minors and new young players coming in as well but we still have experienced players.

“Some have retired, others have gone away and even on the present panel, we have one girl going to Australia. But it’s happening everywhere – it’s the environment that we’re living in now.”

Eager added: “We only beat Louth by a point in February – we stole it off them and next Sunday will be very close.

“Louth are a very good all round team, very strong up the middle.

“They’re every bit as good as any team that we have played. The last game was so close and they’ll be really up for it as well. They had us there for the taking but took their eye off the ball in the last few minutes.”

In next Sunday’s other Bord Gáis Energy Division 4 semi-final, Longford will play Offaly at St. Loman’s, Mullingar.