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Mulcahy on mark for Cork

Women's football League final/ Cork 2-13 Galway 0-6 : Cork celebrated their first Division One Suzuki National League success…

Mon May 02 2005 - 01:00

Women's football League final/ Cork 2-13 Galway 0-6: Cork celebrated their first Division One Suzuki National League success on Saturday when they comprehensively beat reigning All-Ireland champions Galway at the Gaelic Grounds.

Two goals by Valerie Mulcahy steered Cork to victory and finally allowed them to put last year's National League final defeat to Mayo behind them.

Galway looked on course to hold on to their crown when the sides were level at 0-3 each after 14 minutes, but Mulcahy dampened their spirits when she fired the ball past Una Carroll to help the Leesiders to a 1-6 to 0-4 interval lead.

Niamh Duggan briefly raised Galway hopes but Mulcahy converted a 44th-minute penalty to settle the issue at 2-8 to 0-5 and it was one-way traffic thereafter.

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"The girls played very well, they were outstanding actually," admitted Cork coach Mary Collins afterwards. "They were well focused and I think last year's defeat had a big bearing on it - they just weren't going to lose this one.

"We reminded them at half-time that we were seven points ahead against Mayo last year and they came back to beat us. We told them to just drive on and they did that.

"Galway were missing some key players, though, and I think that had a big bearing on the result. I definitely wouldn't like to write Galway off for the championship."

Meanwhile, Armagh stunned 2004 All-Ireland senior quarter-finalists Donegal to win the Division Two National League title in Mullingar yesterday, 1-8 to 1-7.

In the Division Three final, Tipperary beat Dublin's B side 1-10 to 0-7, also in Mullingar.

Cork: E Harte; N Keohane, A Walsh, R Buckley; B Corkery (0-1), C Walsh, S O'Reilly; J Murphy (0-1), N Kelly; A Murphy (0-3), D O'Reilly (0-3), G O'Flynn; V Mulcahy (2-2, one penalty), C Creedon (0-1), A O'Connor. Subs: L Power for Keohane (31 mins), B Stack (0-1) for O'Flynn (half-time), R Curtin for O'Connor (38 mins), N Cleary for Creedon (54 mins), A O'Shea (0-1) for Murphy (56 mins).

GALWAY: U Carroll; M Glynn, R Stephens. C Molloy; AM McDonagh, M O'Connell, E Flaherty; A Clarke (0-2), A Daly; E Concannon, P Gleeson, R McPhilbin; P O'Flaherty (0-1), N Duggan (0-2, one free), L Joyce (0-1). Subs: C Cormican for O'Connell (47 mins), H McHugh for Concannon (52 mins), H Carroll for McPhilbin (57 mins).