All-Ireland Intermediate Ladies Football Championship semi-final
Down v Fermanagh
Sunday, St Tiernach’s Park Clones, 4pm
DESPITE being matched against one of the two teams that derailed their league campaign, the Down ladies’ footballers are feeling no fear this weekend.
Down play a Fermanagh side that inflicted the first defeat on the Mourne ladies in the league, and who have provided tough opposition in all their previous meetings.
But according to their captain Laoise Duffy, the Down girls believe they can reverse the result against Fermanagh in Sunday’s All-Ireland Championship semi-final.
“We are definitely not going into the game with any fear,” she said.
“They have threats that we have identified, but we feel that we have got the personnel to be able to take that on.
“We are going to go in and be confident. We have learnt from the battles that we have had this year.”
Down ladies played Fermanagh at the start of March after a positive run of form in the league. The first game was against Louth, and ended in a draw. The ladies’ footballers went on to win three games in a row (Laois, Clare and Roscommon).
However, Fermanagh’s 1-10 to 2-6 victory dented Down’s hopes of promotion to Division Two, ambitions that were ultimately extinguished by a subsequent defeat to Antrim.
The game was close in the first half. Fermanagh led 1-4 to 1-3 at half time. Eimear Fitzpatrick regained the lead for Down at the start of the second half when she scored 1-1, but Fermanagh eased their way back into the lead and held Down off for the remainder of the game.
“We went into that game after quite a good run. That run of games threw us a bit. We took our eye off the ball a bit,” Laoise said.
“Apathy might have ended up costing us. It definitely played a part.”
Laoise said they learnt an important lesson.
“We are not going into any game thinking that we are going to win.
“Every team that we are playing against now is top class.
“It has shown us that we need to make sure that we have that focus and determination in every game, no matter who we are playing.”
In the full story Laoise goes on to explain what they learnt from their quarter-final win over Monaghan, and what it would mean to reach the final.
