THREE years – that’s how long it took Lyre Rovers to start up their women’s team and then win the Fusion Home Decor WCL Women’s 7’s Premier Division.
Last weekend Lyre beat Drinagh Rangers B 2-0 thanks to a Meadhbh Coomey brace – it took her tally to an incredible 34 goals in 13 games this season – to clinch the title. They could make it a double this Sunday when they play title rivals Drinagh Rangers in the West Cork League Women's Cup final in Brinny (1.30pm kick-off).
When the women’s team in Lyre started up in the 2022/23 season, they won four of their 14 games. This season they won 13 out of 16, losing just one, on their march to glory.
Dwane Twomey and Tom Meehan have done a superb job as head coaches while team captain Caroline Buttimer is also assistant coach.
‘We’re still buzzing after winning the league. We’re only been together for three years. We’ve come on leaps and bounds from the first year we started,’ Buttimer explained.
‘When we had started the team, some players had never played before. Some played when Lyre previously had a team, which is going back 15 years. Some would have played U16 and hadn’t played since.’
The prolific Meadhbh Coomey is one player who has announced herself this year – she has scored 22 goals in 12 league games and even managed to score TWELVE in one cup game.
‘Meadhbh is phenomenal. She is unreal. A ref commented on an 11-a-side cup game on grass, saying “it was a pleasure to watch her play”. She is so unassuming. She is just amazing and she loves soccer,’ Buttimer praised.
‘She is the first person at training and she will be the first person at the match. She is so talented, she has brought everyone else around her.’
Lyre were in the Championship last season, winning eight of their nine games. The momentum they got then has driven them on this term, winning 13 games.
‘We knew we were capable of competing in the premier and the previous season’s experience stood to us,’ Buttimer explained.
‘We had a lot of defeats in the first half of the first year but as it came to the second half of the year, we ended up in mid-table. We were getting better all of the time.’
Rovers lost 3-2 to Drinagh in last year’s cup decider, which was played as a double header with the Beamish Cup final. They were 2-0 up too before being pegged back but Lyre are determined to finish the job this time.
‘I think it was tiredness and maybe we didn’t have a bench of players to bring on – that was our downfall. It would be amazing to do the double. Drinagh are always there or thereabouts, every year; they’ll be worthy opponents but we’ll go out and give it a lash,’ Buttimer concluded.
The Lyre Rovers squad that won the league title includes Natalia Makowska, Caroline Buttimer (captain), Amy Burke, Laura Cooke, Niamh Power, Erica Jennings, Meadhbh Coomey, Anna Hall, Claire Deasy, Mairead Connolly, Aimee Barrett, Ciara Barry, Samantha Quinn, Lisa Hegarty, Anna Barrett and Rachel Buttimer.
