Charlestown a game away from their final fantasy

LGFA: All Ireland IFC Semi-Final

The next leg of the great Charlestown adventure will take place in Michael Fay Park in Longford on Sunday lunch time when Fergal O'Gara and Patricia Ruane's side look to create a bit of history with a place in an All Ireland Intermediate Championship Final in Croke Park up for grabs.

This will be the first year that the LGFA All Ireland Club Championship Finals will take place in GAA headquarters and the east Mayo side are gunning to be there on that big day.

Standing in their way though are a formidable outfit in the shape of Longford Slashers who have just completed their own four in a row of senior championships in their home county - but they drop down to the intermediate grade for the provincial and All Ireland series. The reached last year's Leinster final, where they were pipped by Dublin outfit St Sylvester's who went on to claim the All Ireland title, beating Castlebar Mitchels in that final.

The have a number of quality players in their ranks with the likes of Jessica Barry who hit 2-5 in their Leinster final win over Skryne, Kyana White chipped in with 1-1 in that game also. Other players Charlestown will have to keep an eye on include Grace Shannon in the middle of the park, defender Orla Nevin and team captain Aisling Sheridan.

But Charlestown have their own dynamic set of players led by Deirdre Doherty who over the past three games has contributed 5-19, terrorising defences from Mayo, Leitrim and Roscommon along the way.

Doherty is their leader and key player, but there are plenty of other excellent footballers in their ranks such as Ella Brennan, Katie Gavin, Nora McGovern, Chelsea Doherty, Nicola Meehan and Lauren O'Donnell.

Charlestown have gotten over a number of tough tests on their run to this juncture in the competition, they were pushed all the way in their county final win over Louisburgh - where Doherty came up trumps at the end to win the title and as recently as their last outing in the Connacht final against Leitrim outfit Kitubrid- they led by six points at one stage only to be reeled in the closing stages and they game looked to be heading to extra-time before Doherty, did her thing and kicked the winning score from a free to send them into this weekends semi-final showdown.

The green and white flags and bunting have been out for a long number of weeks now in Charlestown as the community has rowed in behind them and if they can hold their nerve, they can leave the bunting up for another couple of weeks and start planning a trip to Croke Park.

 

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