In a repeat of last year’s final Railway Union retained the Jacqui Potter Cup at Grange Road on Saturday with a 3-0 defeat of UCD, Niamh Carey and Nina Heisterkamp putting them on course with first half goals before Sarah Whelan sealed the victory with another score six minutes from time.
Both sides fielded largely youthful teams, as they have done through this year’s competition, but while UCD were without four of the current Irish panel – Katie Mullan, Lena Tice, Ellen Curran and Leah McGuire – they still had plenty of regular first-choice players in their squad, among them goalkeeper Clodagh Cassin, Deirdre Duke and the Russell sisters, Emma and Abbie.
It was, then, an excellent result for Railway who started the game brightly, Kate Orr’s drag flick and a Katie Lloyd shot on goal coming close to giving them the lead. It was Carey who put them a goal up on 19 minutes when she turned home the rebound after a Jodie Douglas effort was saved by Cassin. Ten minutes later it was 2-0, Orr setting Douglas free on the left, Heisterkamp scoring from her pass.
Duke twice came close to pulling a goal back for UCD, Katie O’Hogan in the Railway goal denying her, while Cassin saved from a Lloyd reverse strike to keep the score at 2-0. Whelan, though, put the game beyond the students when she converted after a rebound from Cassin, a superb save from O’Hogan denying UCD a late consolation score.
Railway Union: K O'Hogan, K Lloyd, K Fearon, K Orr, S Whelan, N Carey, O Fox, N Shaw, M Carey, N Heistercamp, L Paul. Subs: H Jenkinson, J Douglas, A M Whelan, G McLoughlin, A Elliott.
UCD: C Cassin, S Twomey, K Egan, B Barr, S Clarke, A Russell, A Richardson, E Russell, O Patton, S Young, S Robinson. Subs: D Duke, F McDermott, E Young, C Arbulo, S O'Loughlin.
