Castleblayney make history

2012 is turning out to be a great year for Castleblayney as they defeated Mullaghbawn in the Bridie McMenamin Shield Final in Aughnamullen. This was their third trophy of the year with another league title to play for next week. This success has been a long time coming for the Monaghan side according to their manager Paul Forde

‘It’s been a long 8 years to get where we are and I took over three years ago and we were getting beat by anything from 15-30 points. I brought it back to basics and built the girls up and we have some great young players coming through every year which helps. We were close to folding and they stuck at it and worked hard. We won the Monaghan Championship, league and now Ulster title and have the Armagh Div 2 league final next week as well’

Whilst the scoreline of 3-07 to 0-07 suggests a comfortable enough victory for Castleblayney they went in at the break with a one point lead and Forde reckons this spurred the girls on further in the second half

‘ We found ourselves a point up at half time which was great because there was a bit of a wind there. Our girls always come to life in the second half. At the end of the day our girls gave it a wee bit extra and when they did we upped our game’.

Team captain Roisin McKenna also was calm at half time due to the nature of the teams performances this year and was filled with pride as ‘Blayney created history

‘ We always leave things to the second half and to the last minute as we are a second half team. Coming out in the first half we were unbelievable and in the second half we gave it our all and came out on top thank God. It’s been a great year and we are the first Monaghan club to win an Ulster title so we are proud we have made history and I am proud to captain a great bunch of girls. Its been tough with girls at college lately and training has still been good. Since Paul came on board we’ve turned ourselves around and we have the Armagh League Final next week so we are targeting four trophies this year’. It’s been an unbelievable effort from the girls all year.’