THERE’S never a dull moment with the women of Cork City Football Club these days it would seem.

Not only do their games tend to be very high scoring, albeit that is actually a bad thing because more often than not the ball is going in their net, but recently the club has seen a significant change take place behind the scenes.

Last Monday afternoon, City confirmed that Paul Farrell had officially stepped down as manager of the Women’s First Team due to work and personal commitments.

The statement concluded with the Rebel Army adding that “Paul will speak to the players prior to training tomorrow evening.

“The club will inform the players as to the interim management of the team and a further statement will follow in due course.”

The club was true to its word and late on Tuesday evening, it was confirmed that Jess Lawton — the women’s U17 and U19 manager — had officially been appointed as caretaker manager of the women’s senior team.

All of this, of course, is far from ideal though as Cork City prepares to welcome a talented Wexford Youths side to Turner’s Cross this Saturday evening with kick-off set for 5pm.

City knows all too well the challenge that is ahead of them having been beaten 5-1 by Wexford at Ferrycarrig Park as recently as almost exactly one month ago when Republic of Ireland international Ellen Molloy ran riot and scored a hat-trick inside 19 minutes.

It was just a few weeks earlier in the campaign that the Leesiders had lost 7-0 away to champions Shelbourne and since that defeat in the South East of the country, they have been beaten 8-1 by Peamount United, 6-0 by DLR Waves and 4-1 at home to Athlone Town last weekend in their most recent fixture.

It’s quite clear where the problems lie although the slow starts by the entire side have also contributed massively and that’s something the new management team will need to address.

NEW VOICE

Jess Lawton has previously worked with the group as a performance coach and she holds a Masters in Sport and Exercise Psychology from Waterford IT as well as a UEFA B Coaching License.

She is well equipped to ensure that at the very least, the players improve their mentality in the coming days and weeks ahead.

“A lot of the time you go into the dressing room afterwards and you feel like you’re saying things. And it’s not that they don’t want to hear it, but they can’t hear you because they are thinking about what could or should have been.

“But something I said to them in the dressing room afterwards was ‘You have three decisions now; You can leave it define you, you can leave it destroy you or you can leave it drive you’,” she previously told the Echo in an interview after a tough loss.

It will be interesting to see if she can get a positive reaction from the squad, this Saturday against Wexford would be a great time to start.