The Wicklow Ladies U-14 footballers headed to Edenderry on Saturday afternoon to take on Offaly in the semi-final of the Leinster Football Championship.

The Offaly girls created the first score of the game from a free followed by a point from Wicklow full forward Laci Shannon. Offaly quickly responded with a well taken goal from their centre forward. Wicklow gained controlled with some great defending and link up play to their forwards. Another point from Laci Shannon, which was followed by four well taken points from Abbie Magee, created from some great passing plays from Anna Dignam, Aoibhe Traynor and Laci Shannon. Offaly attacked once more and managed to find the net again for a second time followed by a point but within two minutes Wicklow had found the net with Aisling Roche. Anna Dignam got the second goal for Wicklow to keep them out in front. Offaly weren’t giving up the fight and fired home a third goal. Abbie Magee then got her fifth point of the game with the final score of the first half going to Offaly to leave the half time score Wicklow 2-7 to Offaly 3-3.

Wicklow got the second half start they needed with some quick ball into full forward Laci Shannon who found the Offaly net which she followed up with a further point. But despite some great defending from Wicklow, goal hungry Offaly found the net with two further goals to leave the Wicklow girls trailing by 4 points. Wicklow kept their cool and picked off some points from Abbie Magee, Laci Shannon and Anna Dignam.

Credit must go to the hard working midfield pairing of Kayleigh Keogh and April Harty and Wicklow defenders Aobha Harmon, Emily Rose O’Toole, Poppy Rose Cullen Dunne, Elizabeth Bourke, Ciara O’Brien and Grace Murphy who ran their hearts out and were determined to keep Offaly from poaching more goals. With 8 mins to go Wicklow found the goal they needed to take control of the game from full forward Laci Shannon followed by a point from April Harty. Abbie Magee sealed the victory with two well taken points to bring her tally for the day to 8 points. Final score Wicklow 4-14 Offaly 5-4

Team: Holly Wright, Poppy Rose Cullen Dunne, Abbie Cleary (Capt), Grace Murphy, Ciara O’Brien, Aobha Harmon, Emily Rose O’Toole, Kayleigh Keogh, April Harty (0-1), Aoibhe Traynor, Anna Dignan (1-1), Abbie Magee (0-8), Emma Nesbitt , Laci Shannon (2-4) , Aisling Roche (1-0)

Subs: Elizabeth Bourke, Eimear Murphy, Chloe Fadian, Rebecca Byrne, Erin Callaghan, Aisling Brennan, Lauren Gill, Ella O’Reilly, Niamh Gorman, Elaine O’Dwyer, Abbie Smullen, Emma Kinnear, Eva Doyle, Eva Deehan

They will now play Longford in the Leinster Championship Final which will be played on Friday, 12th April at 8pm with the venue to be confirmed.