Bailieboro glory days roll on with another All-Ireland cup

by Kevin Egan

The weather gods and Coláiste Bhríde threw everything they had at the Bailieborough Community School senior footballers last Wednesday in Kinnegad, but a group of players that seems to have forgotten how to lose once again found a way, making it a second consecutive All-Ireland Senior and Junior championship double.

The East Cavan side will now move up to the ‘A’ grade and take their place alongside the leading schools in the country for 2027 and with just two starters from this side due to sit the Leaving Cert in a couple of months’ time, they’ll go into that campaign as a genuine contender, in no small part due to the mushrooming confidence they will feel off the back of a stunning run of success.

In most of their games played in the past couple of seasons, it’s been a case of let the ball get thrown in, and the natural abilities of this prodigious group took over.

Different questions were asked in Kinnegad, as sleet and hailstones pelted in sideways, creating an extra level of challenge for Mary Sweeney’s side, and their Wicklow opponents.

Bailieborough’s management of that test in the second and third quarter was what powered this victory. They built their lead in the 20 minutes before half-time and then defended it brilliantly in the next 15, with just a point registered to each side in that crucial phase when the Leinster champions needed to accumulate scores and eat into the ten-point half-time lead.

When Coláiste Bhríde’s surge did come, there was too much ground to make up, and Bailieborough were able to enjoy the closing five minutes, earning turnovers and revelling in their opponents’ forlorn chase of a much-needed goal.

After the first five minutes of action, when Coláiste Bhríde kicked the opening score, it was Bailieborough who were floundering up front, watching the precious minutes fly by and in need of a goal themselves. And what a goal it was!

Ella McPhillips was hardly an unknown entity, having landed four goals in the Junior final, but this was another level entirely, a stunning 15 metre finish to the top corner at the end of an incisive and mazy 60 metre run that bamboozled the Carnew defence.

Had we not seen that goal, McPhillips’ second would have been hailed as the score of the game, though this time she didn’t have quite as much ground to cover and her shot was a little bit closer to Emma Kirwan in the Coláiste Bhríde goal.

Points from the Knockbride duo of Gia McCabe and Abby Reilly kept the momentum going but it was the third goal that really put Bailieborough in the driving seat, as much for the psychological impact as anything since it was somewhat self-inflicted.

Kickouts into the wind were invariably difficult but one attempt from Kirwan to go short was ruthlessly seized upon by Reilly, who in turn played a handpass over the top of the goalkeeper and towards the goal. Isabel McCullagh and Alannah Murphy threw their bodies at it in a bid to get a crucial touch one side of the post or the other, but McCullagh was able to do enough to steer the ball to the net, helping to ensure a 3-4 to 0-3 advantage.

Even under the old rules, big leads can easily be eaten away in short order when it’s difficult to get out of your own half, but the first 15 minutes of the second half was a masterclass in ball-winning and control, with just one point scored at either end in that period.

Gia McCabe was the main source of possession at midfield as Bailieborough kept the ball out of Coláiste Bhríde hands, with McCabe and McPhillips both unlucky not to stretch the lead even further as they hit the post with tricky efforts.

Unsurprisingly, there was a surge to come from the Carnew school, kicked off by a penalty with ten minutes to play, but while Georgia Horan chipped away at the lead with a couple of frees, the extra goal chances that Coláiste Bhríde needed simply didn’t come, with Bailieborough continuing to control the middle with their tenacity and physicality right up to the end.

After a long campaign where their talent and skill had been shown in copious measure, it was a second half showing that demonstrated yet more depth to one of the most successful groups of young players in Cavan sport right now.

Scorers for Baileborough CS: E McPhillips 2-0, I McCullagh 1-1, A Reilly 0-3 (1f), G McCabe 0-1.

Scorers for Cólaiste Bhríde: G Horan 0-5f, K Tompkins 1-0 pen, L Weld 0-1, Charlotte Doyle 0-1

BAILIEBOROUGH CS (Bailieborough Shamrocks unless stated): Margaret Smith (Cuchullains); Olivia McCullagh, Aoife Rogers (Knockbride), Asha Connolly; Erelle O’Sullivan, Éadaoin Lynch, Gia McCabe (Knockbride); Ella McPhillips (Shercock), Cara McNicholl (Killinkere); Kayleigh Browne (Shercock), Isabel McCullagh, Ellie Reilly (Knockbride); Caoimhe Brady (Killinkere), Abby Reilly (Knockbride), Leila Cooney.

Sub used: Sophie Holland (Shercock) for Brady (48).

COLÁISTE BHRÍDE: Emma Kirwan; Sophie Reilly, Aoife Wafer, Kate Healy; Lucy Weld, Aoibh Johnson, Clodagh Doyle; Megan Hayes, Charlotte Doyle; Niamh Tomkins, Georgia Horan, Karen O’Brien; Danielle Shannon, Kate Tomkins, Alannah Murphy.

Subs used: Laoise Doran for Murphy (48), Emma Cullen for Weld (58).

REF: Gus Chapman (Sligo)