Galway ladies capture league title

GALWAY    3-10

WESTMEATH   0-9

GALWAY ladies footballers finally sealed their return to Division One of the National League as they swept Westmeath aside at Parnell Park on Saturday, with two penalties from Annette Clarke and a third goal from Barbara Hannon proving crucial.

Westmeath proved tough to break down at times, but Galway were too strong in the end to make it nine wins out of nine for the year so far and, in the process, secure league football with the big guns next year.

Galway marked their intent early on with Annette Clarke’s effort coming off the upright after just 17 seconds before Roisin Leonard had a go only fort the troublesome breeze carrying it wide. Fiona Leavy’s free for Westmeath got the scoring underway as Leonard’s placed ball formed a swift Galway response, before a double from Leonard and Lorna Joyce put Galway 0-3 to 0-1 in front.

Leavy’s brace for the Lake County squared the game but Galway came back at them with Barbara Hannon and another free from Leonard regaining the two point lead as Westmeath lost Johanna Maher to the sin-bin.

A second Leavy free brought matters back to a point before Galway finally got the chance to pull away  when Caitriona Cormican fed Louise Ward and she was hauled down by opposition keeper Sarah Keegan for a certain penalty.

Keegan was sin binned as Clarke fired past temporary stopper Triona Durkan and Galway finally had daylight at 1-5 to 0-4 with the clock running down, but Westmeath to their credit were hanging in there.

After Joyce’s second score, Westmeath hit a treble to bring it back to a two-point game, thanks to scores from Ruth Kearney, Maude-Annie Foley and a well-taken effort from Ciara Blundell.

Full report in this week’s Connacht Tribune.