The senior ladies travelled to Russell Park on Wednesday evening for their opening intermediate championship round robin fixture. The Brigid’s team had been playing in Division 3 in 2024 but had been re-building a strong panel this year as evidenced by their 16-0-win record coming into the game, unbeaten this year in both the league and cup. Add in several Dublin panel players and Brigid’s certainly represented a significant challenge.

BSJ have also been developing a panel with 7 of the 2023 Minor Ladies team included in the matchday squad and 4 of those holding down starting places and making debuts.

The BSJ ladies started strongly pushing Brigid’s back and after the opening 7 minutes, looked in control and had 2 points on the board. During this period, several chances to extend this lead were not converted which would ultimately prove costly. 

For the remainder of the half Brigid’s came back into the game very strongly, getting on top around the middle third and putting pressure on the BSJ defence. Some super defending from the girls in black (the BSJ alternate colours on the night) limited the damage on the scoreboard but it meant Brigid’s carried a 0-06 to 0-02 lead into the half time interval.

Immediately on the restart a training ground move from the BSJ girls was executed to perfection and yielded the first major score of the game. The gap was now down to a single point with 25 minutes to play and it seemed like a tight finish was on the cards.

However Brigid’s re-established their dominance with BSJ struggling in attack to create opportunities and Brigid’s responded with 2 points of their own. Then a hugely significant moment when a BSJ turnover created a breakaway move for Brigid’s who converted a goal chance to put daylight between the sides. To add insult to injury the BSJ team was reduced to 14 players for the next 10 minutes with the issuing of a yellow card for a foul in the build up to the goal (which looked a harsh call). Brigid’s added a couple of further scores over the final 10 minutes with the result already being assured at that stage.

Despite things not going the way of the BSJ girls they never gave up and kept going until the final whistle. Brigid’s are a fine side and limiting them to 11 scores wasn’t a bad evening’s work however BSJ just couldn’t get things going offensively on the night. Some of the credit for this of course must go to the Brigid’s girls and their defence, they played some fine team football on the night and certainly deserved the points.

Next up for BSJ is a home game with Lucan in Marley on Wednesday 21st August (Throw In 7.15) which feels like a “must win” to stay in contention in the group.