Loreto and Railway continue to set pace

Saturday round-up
UCD 2 (Fiona Bradish, Catriona McGilp) Hermes 3 (Anna O'Flanagan, Chloe Watkins ps, Elaine O'Neill)
Hermes picked up their first win of the league season as they recovered a first half deficit to beat UCD with Elaine O'Neill scoring the vital goal against her former club. Anna O'Flanagan scored inside the first minute but in-form Fiona Bradish nipped in with a corner deflection to cancel out that strike and Catriona McGilp scrambled a goal on the stroke of half-time for 2-1 in the student's favour. Chloe Watkins' penalty stroke levelled with 20 minutes to go before O'Neill scored the winner with 11 minutes left.

Railway Union 8 (Jean McDonnell 3, Emma Smyth 2, Kate Dillon 2, Nikki Evans) Glenanne 0
Railway continued their perfect start to their first league title defence as they notched up six second half goals to pull clear of Glenanne who remain pointless from their four outings to date. Jean McDonnell hit her second hat-trick of the season so far, bringing her seasonal tally to nine as seven goals came from play for the Park Avenue hosts.

Corinthian 4 (Susie Geoffroy, Aisling Naughton, Lyndsey Watson, Carol Magowan) Pembroke 3 (Gill Collins, Hayley O'Donnell, Alice Ward)
Corinthian picked off their second win of their ever-improving campaign with victory over Pembroke which moves them into a tie for third place in the early season standings. They stretched out a 4-1 lead with goals from Susie Geoffroy, Aisling Naughton, Lyndsey Watson and Carol Magowan's penalty stroke before Pembroke scored two corner rebounds to tighten the game up. But the Whitechurch side held on to move into a tie with Trinity on six points.

Loreto 3 (Catriona Tipping, Niamh Small, Lizzie Colvin) Trinity 0
Loreto continue to set the pace in division one as they took the points from a defiant Trinity in spite of Nikki Symmons' absence. Niamh Small, though, did return and marked her comeback with a stylish reverse-stick effort on the volley to make it 2-0 before rain delayed the ending. But, on the resumption, Lizzie Colvin wrapped up the win against her current place of study.

Old Alex 0 Bray 0
Alex claimed their first point of the season as Bray moved back onto the three-point after their recent point deduction. Mary Goode pulled off a couple of fine saves in the second half to maintain the blank totals column  in another fixture that included a rain-break as the heavens opened amid thunder and lightning in South Dublin.

Sunday round-up:
Hermes 1 (Anna O'Flanagan) Pembroke 1 (Karen Hales ps)

Pembroke snatched a point from their refixed tie with Hermes to bounce back from Saturday's disappointment with Karen Hales scoring from the stroke spot. Pembroke had just netted before one of the visiting Umpire's Development Programme officials - one came from Portugal, the other from Italy - called play back for an earlier infringement. Hales held her nerve to score and cancel out Anna O'Flanagan's first half strike. She bashed in a shot from the circle's edge as a combination of Chloe Watkins' through-ball and Deirdre Duke's off-the-ball running created the chance. O'Flanagan was in good form throughout. Hermes, though, were left to rue a corner count approaching double figures.

Glenanne 1 (Christine Barretto) Old Alex 2 (Nicola Gray, Rachel Griffith)
Rachel Griffith netted the winner to give Alex their first win of the season and secure four points from their two fixtures over the weekend and moves them into a three-way tie for fifth place.

ESB Women's Irish Junior Cup:
Cork C of I II 0 Galway II 1 (Niamh Codyre); Pegasus II Randalstown II - abandoned

* For Deryck Vincent's photos from Hermes vs Pembroke, click here