Mayo 3-6 Waterford 0-14
Mayo came out on top in a pulsating All Ireland Ladies football final at Croke Park today. Mayo struck two second half goals and then held out against an onslaught of Waterford attacking to maintain their lead and claim their second consecutive All Ireland title.
The game was played in very poor conditions with the wind and rain making ball handling awkward; both teams were slow to settle and come to terms with the awkward conditions and the standard of football was low for much of the first half. But Mayo full forward Cora Staunton, who missed last year’s championship through injury, brought the game to life with a fantastic individual goal after 23 minutes to send Mayo in leading at the break.
Waterford started the second half strongly and regained the lead through some excellent point scoring, but they were then rocked on their heels by two Mayo goals. Yvonne Byrne scored a penalty and Staunton scored her second goal of the game, albeit in slightly fortunate circumstances when her shot for a point was misjudged by Sarah Hickey in the Waterford goal and the ball ended up in the net. Waterford then laid siege to the Mayo goal, but failed to find an equalising score before the hooter sounded and Mayo held on to win by a single point.
Earlier, in the All-Ireland Junior Ladies final, Down defeated Galway on a scoreline of 0-14 to 1-9.
