15/09/2026
Moyne Villa's U14 Girls continued their strong start to the season with a hard-fought 2-1 away win over Salthill Devon at the Drum on Sunday.
Salthill started the brighter of the two sides and put the Villa girls under real pressure for the first ten minutes. But the girls dug in, kept Salthill from carving out any clear chances, and gradually began to take control of the game through tireless pressing from the defence and midfield, with Aoife S and Kaia leading by example.
The first big chance fell on 19 minutes, when Ava swung in a great corner and the ball broke to Kaia just outside the box — her powerful strike came back off the crossbar. 3 minutes later, sustained Villa pressure saw Aoife S send Grace M through the middle, but the Salthill keeper produced a point-blank save to keep the scores level.
The breakthrough finally came on 28 mins, when Ava released Cara down the left side of the box. Cara held off her marker and finished with a great strike past the keeper to put Villa 1-0 up. Salthill's best chance was a free kick grazing the outside of the post.
Villa then thought we'd doubled our lead before the break when Kaia's shot from a corner was cleared off the line. Villa went in 1-0 up at half-time.
The second half was a scrappier affair, with both sides battling hard and fewer clear-cut chances than the first, and the girls who came off the bench really helped us maintain the pressure in the second half. Ava almost added a second when she broke clean through the defence, but a last-ditch challenge saw the ball cleared just as she was about to shoot. Against the run of play, Salthill equalised 22 minutes into the second half, a ball down the left wing finding their midfielder, who finished powerfully into the corner.
Villa responded in style, regaining the lead within two minutes through a superb goal. Cara picked up the ball on a mazy run down the left, held off the attention of two defenders, drove into the box, and lobbed the keeper with a great finish into the far corner.
Both sides battled hard for the remainder of the game without further clear-cut chances, and Villa held on for a deserved 2-1 win.
