Sligo women’s gaelic footballers were beaten by Kildare on a scoreline of 1-11 to 3-9 in their second All-Ireland Intermediate Championship Group One game, played in Tubbercurry on Sunday.
Looking to kick on from their convincing opening round win in Down last week, Sligo got off to the better start with Emma Kevaney opening the scoring from play and this was added to by the first of Elaine O’Reilly’s 8 frees.
Kildare then settled into the game and a goal by their number 11 and most impressive performer Neasa Dooley put them ahead and this was followed by another green flag from Aoife Rattigan after a speculative long range effort squirmed its way into the goals to leave the score Sligo 0-02 Kildare 2-00.
Sligo to their credit rallied before half-time,and were level going in at the break thanks to 3 Elaine O’Reilly frees and a superb effort from 30 yards by Laura-Ann Laffey.
Aided by the breeze in the second period, Kildare started to find their range from distance. Scores from Orla Sullivan, Ellen Downing and four by Neasa Dooley had them 2-08 to 0-08 ahead and looking comfortable with 10 minutes remaining.
But back came Sligo. Two more Elaine O’Reilly frees sandwiched Ciara Gorman’s terrific goal and the gap was down to two with six minutes left. But the comeback was short-lived as Kildare scored a third goal through Lara Curran.
Sligo will now look to bounce back next week when they host Limerick knowing a win will secure a Al-Ireland quarter-final spot.
