Road trip was on the cards Yesterday as the u17 Girls made their way to Gorey Rangers for the FAI Cup .

We set off from Mooncoin , unsure of what the day would bring , but excited about the unknown all the same .

Gorey Rangers welcomed us with open arms, and there was talking and plenty of Banter . But when 4pm came …. both teams took to their sides of the pitch , it was down to business.

The game took off at a fast and furious pace . And both teams tried to settle quickly. Gorey Rangers drew first blood and went one up after a long range effort beat our Keeper to put them one up.

Mooncoin kicked into action straight away and had some very good passages of play ,,,,,, which was soon to pay off , a clearance of a ball by Casey Moore up the wing to lighting Fast Luiseach O Donohue put us on the Run , Luiseach took the ball all the way to the corner flag and when it seemed she had no where to go, rounded the Gorey defender and slipped a pass to Emily Blackmore , she brought the ball towards the goal and when the opportunity arose , struck home to level the game up.

Niamh Reddy gave possibly her best performance to date in a Mooncoin jersey, clearing ball and breaking down down the Gorey threat .

Ciara O Keeffe, Kate McGrath, and Cayla Dunphy stood firm in the defence . And Grace O’Toole was ever ready and waiting to spring into action.

Sophie Scahill settled into her midfield roll and helped to distribute plenty of ball .

Ella Brennan caused her usual havoc when we introduced some fresh legs midway through the half . Molly O’Doherty and Eibhlin Holden also freshened up the squad .

Gorey Rangers managed to go one up again from a free kick which is the way it stayed until the break.

We chatted at half time and the girls took to the pitch in the second half hoping to ding an equaliser. With disaster striking for us 5 minutes in when Gorey stuck home for the third time .

Instead of heads dropping …. the 40 remaining minutes were filled with end to end football by both teams, Mooncoin banded together, dug their heels in and went all out . Aoidhin Lonergan mixed things up in the middle when she made her way on to the field of play .

And it looked that the tide might be changing when we were awarded an indirect free kick , but some great defending by Gorey Rangers scuppered that chance .

Alanah Jordan gave us hope when she put a ball though for Emily , but the Gorey keeper was quick off her line .
Ciara Corcoran and Molly Long worked tirelessly to get as much ball forward as possible.
Final Result
Gorey 3-1 Mooncoin

Special mention has to be given to Ella Bailey, who stood between the sticks and wore the GoalKeeper jersey yesterday. Ella worked her socks off and put in an amazing shift for her club yesterday .