CAMOGIE: Offaly claim victory over Meath with 13 point margin

After narrowly losing to Antrim last time out, Offaly would have been keen to claim a victory over Meath on Saturday when they travelled to Trim and they made no mistake about it as they eased to an 13 point victory.

When the teams met in the League earlier in the year, Meath provided a stiff challenge for Offaly so the Faithful girls would have expected a similar match on Saturday. The travelling Offaly supporters would have been anxious when they discovered the starting team showed three changes to the one that started against Antrim with the ever present Aoife Liffey, Cathy Fogarty and Christine Cleary not available. They were replaced by Kaitlyn Kennedy, Hannah Feenane and Birr's Kate Pilkington making her first Senior starting appearance.

While Meath hit the opening point of the game, Offaly dominated the scoreboard for the first twenty minutes and hit seven unanswered points. The Royals rallied and scored three points to narrow the gap before a point from Mairead Teehan was answered by a free from Aoife Carey to leave Offaly leading by three points at half time.

The second half belonged to Offaly who went up a couple of gears after the break and three goals killed the game as a contest.

Again Meath got the first point of the half but a point from Clodagh Leahy was followed up by a goal from Kate Pilkington who got a touch onto a long ball in from the aforementioned Leahy. That left six points between the teams and while a brace of points from Grace Teehan was answered in kind from the Royals, a long shot in from Sharon Shanahan that ended up in the Meath net was the killer blow.

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Points from Faye Mulrooney and a Clodagh Leahy free followed and on the 29th minute another long ball in from Leahy was not dealt with by the Meath defence and again found the net much to the frustration of the Meath supporters.

Offaly on the other hand will be delighted to have watched their team play and win convincingly as they now look towards their final group match of this year's Championship when they take on their neighbours, Westmeath next Saturday.

Meath team: Tara Murphy, Laura O'Neill, Claire Coffey, Sophia Payne, Leah Devine, Maeve Clince, Ciara Foley, Rachel O'Neill, Amy Gaffney, Isabel O'Connor, Aoife Carey, Grace Connolly, Emma Regan, Erin Leddy, Katie Connolly

Subs: Brodie Kelly for Laura O'Neill, Tracey King for Isabel O'Connor, Ellen Burke for Tara Murphy, Grace Coleman for Aoife Carey

Meath scorers: Aoife Carey 0-6 (2 frees, 1 '45), Grace Connolly 0-2, Brodie Kelly 0-2, Amy Gaffney 0-1

Offaly team: Leah Gallagher, Megan King, Amy Byrne, Kaitlyn Kennedy, Hannah Feenane, Orlagh Phelan, Roisin Kinsella, Clodagh Leahy, Sharon Shanahan, Grace Teehan, Caoimhe O'Donovan, Kate Pilkington, Mairead Teehan, Faye Mulrooney, Fianait Dooley

Subs: Ciara Maher for Caoimhe O'Donovan, Niamh Sheehy for Fianait Dooley, Karla Mannion for Hannah Feenane, Orla Kilmartin for Faye Mulrooney. Aoife Hoctor for Megan King

Offaly scorers: Clodagh Leahy 1-6 (5 frees), Grace Teehan 0-5 (1 free), Kate Pilkington 1-1, Sharon Shanahan 1-0, Mairead Teehan 0-2, Faye Mulrooney 0-1

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