Published: Wednesday, 10th March, 2010 5:00pm

Ladies make it four on the trot

Grainne Smith hit 1-4 as Cavan registered their fourth win in as many games last Sunday afternoon at the expense of Wexford to maintain their place at the summit of Division Three in the Bord Gais National Football League.

The Killygarry attacker was in sizzling form, particularly in the first-half when she finished off a well worked move by the hosts superbly to the Wexford net which set Adrian McGovern's team well on their way to collecting both points.

Cavan raced out of the traps for this encounter, clearly keen to sustain their bid for promotion back to Division Two, as Aisling Doonan lofted over a free 30 seconds in and backed it up with a nice point on the turn a minute later. Smith opened up her account soon afterwards with a tidy point off the outside of her boot, before Wexford responded on eight minutes when Catherine Doyle was fouled in the corner and converted the resultant free herself.

As the half grew on, Doyle proved the only real threat from a meagre Wexford side, but her influence on the game would fade out in the second-half via a combination of Cavan's dominance at centre-field and the Wexford corner-forward being better shackled by her marker Claire Kearns.

On ten minutes Cavan struck for their killer blow when Claire Murtagh and Doonan combined to release Smith along the right flank and she darted in to bury a devastating finish beyond 'keeper Mary-Rose Kelly.

Brid Boylan and Smith tacked on points afterwards to bring Cavan's lead up to seven, but Doyle managed to keep her side within some sort of touching distance just shy of the 20-minute mark with another accurate free.

Wexford struck two bad wides after that, which would have brought the difference down to four, but instead it was the home side that punished their opponents when Smith cut in from the wing again and spilt the posts and Doonan guided another free over the bar with her reliable left boot.

Doyle struck Jim McGovern's team's first score from play two minutes from half-time, where Cavan would take in a comfortable 1-7 to 0-3 advantage.

Kept in by McGovern until moments before the second-half throw-in, Wexford came out all guns blazing for the second-half and hit the Cavan net three minutes in, after midfielder Marcella Cullen was presented with a rare sight at goal and found Karen Baxter's top-scorer with an unstoppable shot.

Cavan introduced forward pairing Christine McCutcheon, who had played in goal in the previous outing against Westmeath, and Claragh O'Reilly to the fray shortly afterwards and both would have an impact.

Within seconds of taking her position on the field, O'Reilly set-up Smith for the Breffni women's first score of the half and then got herself in on the act with a slick dummy past her marker which was followed by an accurate over.

Wexford would suffer a cruel blow in the meantime as substitute Sandra Thorp sustained a nasty knee injury which saw her having to leave the field of play by stretcher, which put a real dampener on things for the Leinster side.

Cavan stuck to their guns though as McCutcheon sent Murtagh through for a rousing point - her team's tenth - and Roisin O'Keefe was threaded through for what looked a certain goal but the Lacken dual star was denied by a spectacular save from Kelly in the Wexford goal, who tipped her effort over for a point.

It hadn't been the first time the Model shot-stopper came to her team's rescue, as she had been excellent after the concession of an early goal from Smith's unstoppable shot.

However, she could do nothing about the points and in the end that made the difference for Cavan, as team captain Pamela Crowe fittingly rounded-off her team's performance with their last score a minute from time after robbing her marker of possession and sending it over Kelly's crossbar.

The win sees Cavan remain at the top of Division Three on 12 points and leading by point difference against Waterford, with a trip to Dr Hyde Park up next this Saturday afternoon against Roscommon (throw-in 2.00pm).

Cavan: Karen Baxter; Claire Kearns, Donna English, Ciara Reilly; Grainne McGlade, Ailish Cornyn, Rachel Jordan; Claire Murtagh (0-1), Rosie Crowe; Grainne Smith (1-4), Roisin O'Keefe (0-1), Pamela Crowe (0-1); Brid Boylan (0-1), Sharon Cassidy, Aisling Doonan (0-3, 2f).

Subs: Claragh O'Reilly (0-1), Christine McCutcheon, Renee Murphy.

Wexford: Mary-Rose Kelly; Marguerite Doyle, Shelley Doyle, Aisling McNamara; Aoife Waters, Catriona McCabe, Aoife Fitzpatrick; Fiona Rochford, Marcella Cullen (1-0); Sharon Kehoe, Tara Maloney, Maeve Quill; Leona Tector, Clare Finn, Catherine Doyle (0-3, 2f).

Subs: Linda Casey, Sandra Thorp, Maebh Hughes, Aisling Mullen, Jane Mythem.

Ref: Gerard Devlin (Tyrone)