Ulster Shield glory day for the Toon girls

BALLYMONEY 1 PEGASUS 0

BALLYMONEY basked in glory on Saturday after securing the Ulster Shield in a showdown with fierce rivals Pegasus at Lisnagarvey.

And fittingly to round off the season in style it was captain Suzie Sneddon who netted a dramatic winner.

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Her penalty corner strike was the difference on the day against Pegasus who went into the game with the favourites tag.

Afterwards Sneddon said: “Coming into the game against Pegasus we are always going to be underdogs but we were confident that we could do it and I think that showed in our performance as some times we come out against Pegasus on the back foot and that didn’t happen today.

“To score the winning goal was just the icing on the cake. We’ve had some ups and downs this season as things just haven’t gone to plan but we said at the start of the season that we wanted a trophy and we have done it.”

The match was far from a classic as both sides were unable to take a firm hold but Pegasus, missing their two key players Arlene Boyles and Claire McMahon, struggled to get going.

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Ballymoney started strongly with Sneddon firing just wide from the Toon’s first penalty corner in the 6th minute and on the stroke of half time Jessica Moore just failed to get a touch to the ball after a defence-splitting pass.

Three minutes into the second period came the decisive moment when Sneddon unleashed an unstoppable penalty corner strike and it flew into the Pegasus net.

However, ten minutes later Suzanne Beaney had a great chance to level the game but as she rounded the advancing Ballymoney ‘keeper Sammy-Jo Greer her shot flew past the empty net.

In the dying moments Pegasus could have levelled it when they won two penalty corners but failed to convert both and the Shield was on its way up the A26.