Our Junior Ladies faced Douglas in the first round of this year's Junior A County championship in the park today in what proved to be a hard fought battle.

Bantry playing with the wind in the first half started strongly with a Sarah Bishop point after just a minute which was quickly followed up by a fine goal from Zara Barry and a Megan McSweeny point to put Bantry in the driving seat.Douglas however were playing some nice football and were racking up points to keep them firmly in this game until a cracking goal from the superb Sarah Bishop on fifteen minutes put the girls in blue back in control.Bantry were now in the ascendancy with further points from Eve Murphy and Jessica Gleeson and when they were awarded a penalty on the stroke of half time,which was expertly dispatched by Aisling Stock,Bantry went in well on top at half time leading on a scoreline of 3.6 to 0.6

To say this was a game of two halves would be an understatement.Douglas came out with all guns blazing and scored 1.1 inside 2 minutes.

The Bantry defence was under serious pressure despite the efforts of Kate McCarthy and Bernadette o Flynn.Douglas kept the scores coming with some fine points before Bantry registered their first point of the second half from Sarah Bishop in the fifteenth minute.Still Douglas piled on the pressure and Bantry's lead was dwindling fast but again they were awarded a penalty which this time was put over the bar for a point by Aisling Stock to give Bantry some breathing room.Trojan work from Emma Spillane and Eve Murphy at midfield helped to stem the Douglas tide but their constant pressure on the Bantry defence paid off when they goaled with two minutes to go to see them bag the points on a scoreline of 3.8 to 2.13.

A harsh defeat for the Bantry girls after being in such a commanding position at half time but it's back to business next weekend when they face Skibbereen in their next game of this round Robin series.

Scorers for Bantry

Sarah Bishop 1.4

Zara Barry 1.0

Aisling Stock 1.1(penalties)

Eve Murphy 0.1

Jessica Gleeson 0.1

Megan McSweeny 0.1

BANTRY BLUES LADIES SPONSORED BY;

JOHN MCSWEENEY PLANT HIRE & TREE CUTTING SERVICES