Bantry ladies need to take their chances

BANTRY Blues need to be more clinical in front of goal if they want to get their county championship campaign back on track.

New to senior football this season, the Bantry ladies lost their first-ever county senior championship game recently when they went down to Fermoy by 3-9 to 2-9 but they already have a chance to put what lessons they learned in that defeat into practice.

Bantry take on Éire Óg in their second group game in Ovens (7.30pm) on Thursday, August 11th, and Blues captain Myra O'Sullivan feels they need to be more ruthless.

‘We need to take our chances,' she said.

‘We ran the ball in too far against Fermoy, didn't take the chances that we created and it allowed them to counter attack very fast.

‘We did quite well out the field to work the ball into scoring positions but we just didn't take our chances then.'

With their game against Bride Rovers postponed this was Bantry's first taste of senior and O'Sullivan says it will take time to adjust to the higher standard, with the Blues having come up through the junior and intermediate ranks in successive seasons.

‘You could see the pace was a lot faster, definitely. It's full throttle, no let-up and a big difference from intermediate. Physically, you could feel it too, there were a lot of hard hits going in,' she said, but O'Sullivan believes that Bantry will find their feet pretty fast, pointing to the fact that Fermoy had already played two championship games before they met the West Cork women.

‘Fermoy had two games under their belt and that stood to them, and I genuinely believe that we could have beaten them if we had a few games played, too. We lost by six points but that didn't reflect the game because we had more possession but they were more clinical,' O'Sullivan said.

‘We have come from the last few years where we have been so successful so we have that drive in us. 

‘The nerves are gone now because we're after our first game. We didn't really know where we were going into that game, we were wondering would they be a good few levels above us but we genuinely matched them. They had an edge because they have played a few games already.'

Éire Óg are already after two championship games – beating Fermoy by a point and losing to Bride Rovers – and they beat Bantry well in the county league in May (3-16 to 1-6), so the West Cork side knows they need to be at their best next week.

‘Éire Óg have been senior for a long time so that's an advantage to them, they know the grade well but we know when we play well we can give anyone a game,' O'Sullivan insisted.

Against Fermoy full back Eileen O'Driscoll, who ended up with four stitches above her eye, centre back Mairead Dullea and wing back Bernadette O'Flynn were Bantry's top performers – and they'll need an improved overall performance if they want to get their first-ever win in the senior championship.