Newtown Juniors Girl’s Under 18’s followed the example of their U-16 counterparts the previous week and clinched their place in the MGL Finals on Saturday 15th March.
They traveled to the all weather pitch in Blanchardstown IT to take on Finglas natives WFTA. There was early pressure from the home side as this game was affected by a sharp wind, which assisted the home team in the opening half.
Georgina Canavan hit the crossbar with a shot from outside the area on five minutes and despite a couple of anxious moments from set pieces our girl’s carved out the better chances early on.
The outcome of this game was copper fastened in a nine-minute period from the half hour mark after a change in formation to 4-3-3. Firstly Amy Murphy strode onto Cliona Crammond’s through ball to slide the ball to the net and this was followed by number 2 on 33 minutes when Canavan showed neat footwork on the right hand side to create some space for herself for a clever finish.
Murphy made it 3-0 on 37 mins with an emphatic finish after been put through by Olivia Flanagan. We maintained this lead going into the half time break.
In the second half assisted by the wind the team kept a firm grip on the game and continued to create some excellent chances. Cliona Crammond scored the forth in the 55th minute when she glided through the WFTA defence to score.
Newtown at this stage were dominating and they knocked the ball around the pitch very impressively. Chances continued to be created but it wasn’t until four minutes from time that the scoring was completed when Orlaith Whelan scored the fifth committing the keeper one way and putting the ball the other.
The final score was 5-nil. On the day there were many good displays and well done to Amy Murphy who received the player of the match award from Vinnie Patterson & Ben O’Looney from the MGL.
Olivia Flanagan & Cliona Crammond among others ran her very close for the award. Overall considering it was our first outing of 2014 the whole team played very well.
Player of the Match: Amy Murphy 
