THIS weekend Cork City face one of only two sides that they have beaten in the Women’s National League this season.

City claimed the bragging rights from their two Munster Derbies with Treaty United in 2022 but their only other victory came against Bohemians, whom they take on at Dalymount Park this Saturday afternoon with kick-off set for 2pm.

It was at Turner’s Cross though back at the beginning of April when City defeated their rivals from Dublin 2-1 thanks to goals from Aoife Cronin and Becky Cassin.

Perhaps Bohs will be looking for revenge but they come into this game having lost 3-1 to Wexford Youths at Ferrycarrig Park last weekend while they also faced a tough trip to Champions Shelbourne during the week.

While the Rebel Army may have the advantage of the extra few days rest during the week and the extra time to focus solely on just this fixture, they aren’t going into the game in good form.

They suffered their 14th loss of the campaign last Saturday when they were beaten 3-0 by DLR Waves at the Cross.

It was also their third loss in a row and their fourth in five matches under their new boss Danny Murphy.

But Murphy was pleased with his side’s effort against Waves and he believes if they can keep building on that they will start to get positive results, potentially starting with Bohs, which will be streamed live and for free on LOI TV.

“We can keep building on what we have been doing,” said Murphy.

“Since I have come in I have seen lots of changes.

There have been things that we can do better, we have not been consistent enough but we will need a full pre-season to get that right.

“The things we want to implement now are things that we are going to have to implement gradually.

“But they will improve. I know before the end of the season that we will start winning, we will start to be more competitive against teams like that.”

City are unlikely to have their captain Becky Cassin available for selection due to her injury and they will also be without goalkeeper Maria O’Sullivan and striker Lauren Egbuloniu, who have both returned to their respective colleges in America.

“Maria and Lauren are gone,” confirmed Murphy. “Maria has been brilliant since she came in, they both have.

“Maria has been great around the team in terms of she has been good for me and James as well so she has been a good player for us.

“It will be a loss to lose her but Abby (McCarthy) is capable of stepping in and taking her place.

“Abby will come in now and we will keep pushing on and keep improving.

“Becky is still injured at the moment, she is probably another week or potentially two away from returning.

“But for me, we have got some good players and we are good enough without those players so we will just have to knuckle down and keep improving.”