Lucan 2-10, St Vincents 2-09.

Phew, what a thriller! Thumping hearts, sweaty palms, weak kneed. Yes, that was us spectators on the sideline in the last minute of this mighty battle. Hanging on for dear life against a gale foce wind, up against a spikey Vinnies side full of attitude and fight. This team does not do panic however.....

Vins won the toss and elected to play against the strong wind. Game on, and it was business as usual between these two. Vincents have developed into a pretty good side in the last 18 months, stocked with players who give their all. Vinnies opened the scoring with a point. Lucan were slighty out of sorts at this stage with the Marino side dominating the exchanges. Orla Sadlier was working very hard around the middle, showing good composure and a good first touch, and Lucan started to work their way into it. Grainne Eley blasted home on 7 minutes to settle things down. What a season Grainne is having, scoring heavily in every game. Lucan started to dominate from this point on with Jessie Mc scoring points to beat the band. Aoife Mc, as well as linking up play, was her usual immaculate self from placed balls. The score of the half however, was a sight to behold. Jessie took a free from the middle of the field, Fiona Daly, standing on the end line rose like a salmon to field the sliothar with nothing but goal on her mind. Dropping the hurl, about to handpass to the net, she was engulfed by what seemed like the entire Vinnies fullback line. From the ensuing melee, Lucan handpassed the ball 4 times  across the Vincents 21 yard line rather like a rugby move which resulted in a great point. Any Vincent rallies were ably mopped up by the Lucan half back line of Aoife Mahon, Laura Morgan, and Yasmin Kilduff. Aoife is playing 2 years up and looks to the manor born at this level. Half time, Lucan 1-7, Vincents 0-3. Not a great lead after such dominance with the wind to come.

And so it proved, almost. Character comes to the fore in times of strife, and these players have it in spades. Vinnies scored first, a point. Lucy Fleming bravely bundled over for a goal to to put 9 between them. Maybe this was,nt going to be too big an ordeal after all. Wrong! As the wind picked up, the light faded and the temperature dropped, Vincents piled on the pressure.These are very difficult conditions for any defence, but the girls coped admirably. Avril Quinn stood tall in adversity as ever, lapping up the hardship, Kelsey Fahey, sore toe and all never flinched. Sarah P and Katie Hegarty, despite injuries just tore into it. The alpha females throughout all this though were Kate Britton at full back, and Aoife O Kane in goal. They were simply brilliant. Kate gave an exibition of calm and controlled defending, clearing ball after ball. AOK saved 3 certain goals. Three times we watched a Vincents forward strike hard for goal, three times we thought it was a goal, three times we were wrong! Outstanding stuff.

Lucan did have the odd raid upfield during all of this, and credit to the girls, they made it count almost every time. Grainne burst through with goal on her mind [is it never], unleashing a screamer which went over via the crossbar, another time Emily McIntyre scampered through to point beautifully. Jewish people await the Second Coming but the hurling gods have granted us ours in the shape of this precocious, scampering playmaker. Eighteen months out recovering from a cruciate tear, and back approaching her best.

Entering the last 10 minutes, things were looking grim. Jessie was struggling badly with injury[fingers crossed its not too bad] and had to be shipped to full forward. The silver lining here was that it released Aoife Mc out the field and her long striking helped to relieve pressure somewhat. Last minute  and Vincents scrambled over the line to tie the scores. We were dreading the puckout, as the force was definately with the northsiders.... however, Lucan won the puckout, worked the ball up the left hand side, and up popped Emily to cooly slot the winner.

Some would say grand larceny, some would say you make your own luck. Damned close run thing....

Anyway, its onwards and upwards for this squad of grafters. We look forward to having Tara O Connor and Rhiannon Withero back from injury, as they will strengthen things further, as will the great Laura Quinn. The rollercoaster continues on Saturday week versus Ballinteer. Til then.