Belgium GAA: 5-2 (17)
Castleblayney Faughs: 2-19 (25)
Maastricht, The Netherland 20/11/2022
An extraordinary year for the Belgium GAA ladies football team came to an extraordinary end as they faced off against the Ulster champions, Castleblayney Faughs (Monaghan) in the All Ireland Junior Club Championship Quarter Final.
It was a cold Sunday morning in Maastricht as our ladies team prepared for another historical day in the club. The game started with a great defensive performance from both teams, with the score being 0-01 to 0-02 to the Faughs after 10 minutes with Clara Lambert getting the opening score for Belgium. Some key blocks were made during the first half to hold off the Faughs especially coming from Aisling Fenton and Grainne Alyward. The Faughs continued to get scores as the first half continued making it 0-01 to 0-04. Belgium had a great response after that in the 15th minute as Jenny Moore kicked the ball into the forward line and Clara Lambert read the bounce well to collect it, the ball was passed around in the square where Clara was fouled and awarded a penalty. Lambert then stood up and calmly slotted a great penalty into the back of the net, tying up the game at 1-01: 0-04.
45 seconds later Castleblayney were able to respond and get a goal for themselves to retain their 3-point lead after 15 minutes. For the next 15 minutes, Belgium defended well to only conceded 1 point in that period and Clara Lambert slotted over a free kick just before the half-time interval making it 1:02 – 1:05 with it all to play for.
The Faughs started the 2nd half with a point making it a 4-point game but it was Belgium who had a stronger start to the half with Clara Lambert (again) sticking the ball into the back of the net with a neat finish as she fell to the ground in the 33rd minute. The Faughs got another point after the goal to make it 2 point gap after 37 minutes. With the score being 2-02 to 1-07, Belgium could feel they were getting close and to keep fighting. An attempt from Jenny Moore saw the ball hit the crossbar and fall to Margaux Mansanarez who batted the ball into the back of the net. For the first time in the game, Belgium were in the lead 3-02 to 1-07 with 20 minutes to go. Unfortunately, Castleblayney’s class was shown and they were able to move up a gear scoring 1-09 with no response over a 10-minute period making it 3-02 to 2-16.
In the 57th minute, Marla Candon found a gap and handpassed it across the goals where Margaux added a second goal to her tally to bring the gap back to 8 points. The Faughs were able to respond with 2 points afterwards bringing it into injury time. Belgium wasn’t finished as Aine Charlton (surname pronounced the same as Jackie Charlton) still had the energy to run down the centre of the pitch, hand pass it to Clara who stuck it in the back of the net to get her hattrick. “Goals, Goals, Goals for Belgium..but it may be too little too late,” said the commentator as the full-time whistle was looming. The Faughs managed to get the last point of the game making the full-time score 5-02 to 2-19.
Front Row (L-R): Aisling Fenton, Anay Rios, Margaux Mansanarez, Frosso Taprantzi, Orla Butler, Áine Charlton, Elena Postantzi, Danielle Brady, Rachel Corcoran, Ruth O’Laoide Kelly, Marla Candon (C), Florina Tobon Escobar
A great performance from the women in red who should be very proud to come close to the Ulster Champions who had some excellent players. A special shout-out to Tony Bass from Maastricht Gaels, who put in a lot of work to make this fixture happen and also togged out as linesman for the day. The season officially comes to an end with an extraordinary team going above and beyond with the ladies footballers getting this far. The players cannot talk highly enough about this year’s manager Cosmos Gilmore who had a massive impact on this unbelievable year. This team had a great performance and made everyone in this little club of ours proud. This being the last report of the year, both women’s teams (Football and Camogie) ensured that every single article in 2022 had a positive outcome and that silverware was returning back to the EU capital. This makes Mr PRO’s job a lot easier, so it is very much appreciated and we can’t wait for 2023 as the club aims to continue adding more silverware to their 34 European Championships. Ár míle buíochas libh ar fad.
| 1 Ríoghnach Hyland (Waterford) | ||
| 2 Aisling Fenton (Kerry) | 3 Gráinne Aylward (Kerry) | 4 Lola Woydt (Belgium) |
| 5 Áine Charlton (Mayo) | 5 Rachel Corcoran (Roscommon) | 7 Margaux Mansanarez (France) 2-00 |
| 8 Jenny Moore (Kildare) | 9 Florina Tobon Escobar (Colombia/Belgium) | |
| 18 Caragh O’Connor (Dutch/Irish) | 11 Clara Lambert (Denmark) 3-02 | 12 Orla Butler (Meath) |
| 13 Ana Rios (Spain) | 14 Aileen Glynn (Clare) | 15 Marla Candon (C) (Roscommon) |
| 16 | Ruth O’Laoide Kelly (Kerry/Limerick) |
| 17 | Clíona McDonnell (Dublin) |
| 31 | Jade Tenwick (South Africa/Cork) |
| 19 | Frosso Taprantzi (Greece) |
| 20 | Danielle Brady (Cavan) |
| 21 | Sonja Beekman (Australia) |
| 22 | Jill O’Gorman (Cork) |
| 23 | Alexandra Sitekova (Slovakia) |
| 24 | Eimear Murphy (Mayo) |
| 25 | Annie-Rose Deegan (Carlow/Laois) |
| 26 | Beatriz Machado (Brazil) |
| 27 | Elena Postantzi (Greece) |
| 28 | Aimée McGrath (Kildare) |
| 29 | Amy Keane (Mayo) |
| 30 | Fionnuala Flynn (Cavan) |
Brussels Craobh Rua 