Our U9 girls enjoyed their first matches this weekend as we welcomed both St Marks and Robert Emmet’s to Racecourse Park. Given the number of visiting players we also had the pleasure of bolstering our ranks with some of our U7 girls who provided immense contributions on the day.
One of our teams took on St Marks on Pitch 1 and the determination shown by this group of players was self-evident. With their training over the past months starting to show, they turned over possession again and again. The tackles, challenges and distribution from Emily Langton, Maeve, and Ruby across our defence made it a tough day for St Marks. Emily Harris, Aoife and Annabelle worked end to end getting back to help our defence and carrying the ball forward. Meanwhile Emily O’Sullivan and Beibheann pushed forward in attack forcing St Marks to work hard at all times.
Meanwhile on Pitch 2 our other team took on Robert Emmets. The honesty of effort coupled with developing skills from the NDG team showed with Robyn Berney, Marianne and Ava tackling tirelessly and distributing the ball immensely under pressure. Also, Sophie, Edith and Robyn PK led by example not giving any time to the opposition making it a very tough match for Robert Emmets.
Proving invaluable on the day, Freya, Anna, Florence and Faye demonstrated wisdom beyond their years slotting into both team seamlessly with many commenting that it was hard to believe some of our strongest players had only stepped up from U7s that morning for this match.
At the halfway point the teams then swapped over with the strength of our growing panel showing as both Robert Emmet’s and St Marks left disappointed that a lesser challenge did not present itself in their second match.
A strong performance of which the coaching panel are very proud; hard to believe this is this group’s first ever match!!! Special mention to Maeve, Freya and Sophie who all took a number of heavy hits during the games but shrugged these off to ensure their team mates were not left wanting.
A big thank you to St Marks and Robert Emmet’s both of whom we are due to meet again later in the year. Thanks also to all our supporters who came out to cheer on the girls and create a great atmosphere in the park. And finally, a thank you to the U13’s selling tea, coffee and cakes for the supporters.
Check out our Gallery section for more pictures from the day.
