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Go Ahead Ireland Dublin LGFA Junior K Club Championship Final
Stars Of Erin 6-18 St Vincents B 2-04
By Nigel McCarthy
A powerful and dominant performance clinched the 2025 Go Ahead Ireland, Dublin LGFA Junior K Club Championship title for Stars of Erin on Friday night against St Vincents B in Lawless Park in Swords.
Stars Of Erin dominated proceedings from start to finish and it was a hard night at the office for St Vincents who were unable to stop the relentless running power and clinical finishing of their opponents.
St Vincents, despite conceding two goals inside the opening five minutes of the game scored by Naomi Cuffe who finished with a personal tally of 4-05, found themselves within touching distance at the break just four points adrift thanks to two Ciana Boland goals late in the half.
Those two goals however were the result of strange tactics used by Stars of Erin goalkeeper Zoe Kinsella who operated as an extra defender when St Vincents were on the attack leaving the goal completely unattended and St Vincents Ciana Boland kicked both her goals from distance into an empty net.
There were no such gifts afforded by the Stars of Erin team in the second half as they completely dominated their opponents, outscoring St Vincents by 4-11 to 0-01.
The Marino side just could not cope with the running power, tenacity in the tackle and clinical finishing of the likes of Kate Kelly, Player of the Match Katrina Parrock, Sadhbh Longmore, Aoife O’Neill and Naomi Cuffe.
St Vincents found themselves penned into their own half for much of the second half with the Stars of Erin players forcing multiple turnovers, misplaced passes and miss placed kick-outs which they punished with a cold ruthlessness.
When St Vincents did manage to work the ball up field they found players like Rachel Staunton, Niamh Keane and Rebecca Dowling in no mood to concede an inch.
Twenty-six points behind, the final whistle would have come as a welcome relief for St Vincents who will have better days ahead. But Friday night belonged to the side from Glencullen who deservedly claimed the win and the Junior K Club Championship crown.
Stars of Erin moved the ball at pace from the outset and two minutes into the game they struck the first blow when an unmarked Naomi Cuffe straight in front of goal received the ball from the left wing, burst past two players and buried the ball to the net.
Goal number two arrived just three minutes later, Sadhbh Longmore and Erin McDonnell progressed the ball down the left-hand side and switched the ball into the centre to Naomi Cuffe who clinically raised her second green flag of the game.
Two points in as many minutes from Erin McDonnell and Cuffe extended the lead out to eight points and St Vincents were already facing an uphill task.
St Vincents were awarded a free in the tenth minute, Lauren Mooney took a short free to Orla Gavin who returned the ball to Mooney to pop over the Marino sides first point of the final.
The Stars of Erin response to that score was swift, Katrina Parrock was on the end of well worked move involving Rebecca O’Callahan, Rebecca Dowling and Aoife O’Neill to register her first point of the contest and seconds later she grabbed her second to leave nine points between the teams.
St Vincents reduced the deficit with two points in a row from Lauren Mooney and Kelli Byrne.
During this St Vincents attacking spell there was the strange sight of Stars of Erin goalkeeper Zoe Kinsella leaving her goal unattended to position herself as an extra defender, it was obviously a tactical decision, but it came back to bite them in the twenty second minute when Kinsella was caught in no man’s land and Ciana Boland struck the ball to the empty net from twenty metres out.
Naomi Cuffe brought her tally to 2-02 for the half with a fine point five minutes before the break. But Stars of Erin threw their opponents another lifeline two minutes later when once again Zoe Kinsella was caught way off her line trying to do the work of a defender and once again Ciana Boland slotted the ball into the empty net.
Just before the half-time whistle points from Cuffe and Katrina Parrock made sure Stars of Erin would take a four-point advantage with them into the second half with the score at the break 2-07 to 2-03.
The second half belonged to Stars of Erin, Katrina Parrock knocked over the first two points of the half to extend the lead. St Vincents were now penned inside their own half and struggling to make any impact moving forward.
In the thirty-eight-minute Rebecca Dowling overturned the ball as St Vincents tried to work the ball out from their defence, she quickly offloaded to the ever-dangerous Naomi Cuffe who plundered her third goal of the game.
Further points from Katrina Parrock, the impressive Sadhbh Longmore who was another contender for player of the match and Kate Kelly stretched the lead further.
With ten minutes to go in the contest Stars of Erin added two more goals in the space of a minute to disappear over the horizon. The first came from the boot of Naomi Cuffe, Sadhbh Longmore’s shot at goal rebounded off the foot of goalkeeper Lucy Hens and Cuffe gathered the rebound and scored her fourth goal of the game.
Kate Kelly won the resultant kick-out and powered by a number of the St Vincents players to coolly slot the ball to the net.
With six minutes remaining St Vincents grabbed their only score of the second half, a point from Lauren Mooney.
Even though the outcome of the game had long been decided, the Stars of Erin players drove relentlessly on adding a further 1-06 without reply before the final whistle, the points coming from Naomi Cuffe and Aoife O’Neill with two each and one apiece from Rachel Staunton and half-time substitute Hannah Kennedy. And in the dying embers of the game Sadhbh Longmore put the icing on the cake of her excellent performance with a rocket of a shot to the net.
Seconds later referee Gary Carthy ended proceedings to confirm the result and the Stars of Erin players could celebrate their well-deserved win and club championship title.
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