THE break is over and Cork City FC Women return to action this weekend with a home game against Peamount United at Turner's Cross, with kick-off set for 5pm.

Danny Murphy and his players will go into this fixture just after getting their first point of the season at the Market Fields in Limerick.

Laura Shine scored their first league goal of the year at the home of Treaty United, and that gave her side a 1-0 lead at half-time. 

Kiara Kilbey knocked in the equaliser after the break and that ended the first Munster Derby of the season as a draw.

Saturday will be a different test as City have only played one home game this year, and they will be welcoming a free-scoring Peamount team that is looking for three more points towards their goal of winning the league title.

The Peas started the year with four consecutive wins and their momentum was halted with a 4-1 defeat to rivals Shelbourne. 

It was a result made worse by the fact that Eric McLoughlin gave them the lead inside five minutes, and they held that until the 57th minute. 

Megan Smith Lynch levelled and 20 minutes later the game was all but wrapped up for Shels.

They haven't played since then, but Tara O’Hanlon was in the Republic of Ireland squad that travelled to the USA for a series of friendlies.

Peamount are in the hunt for their first league title since 2020 and they announced their intentions by winning their opening four games by an aggregate score of 10-1, with their biggest result a 3-1 victory over an Athlone Town team that was just after winning their first senior trophy.

City achieved that feat in 2017 but this is a new group of players that is slowly coming into their own under Murphy. 

Eva Mangan is the engine for this team and she was rewarded for her work with an assist against Treaty United. Fianna Bradley continues to make substitute appearances and she impresses each time with her close control of the ball.

The best performer in Limerick was Jesse Mendez, and she was named in Team of the Week for her contributions on the night.

These are all signs of a team that is coming together after a difficult start to the new season. 

When taking this all in, it can be easy to forget that City have only played one home game this year and that ended in a narrow 1-0 defeat to Galway United.

Achieving something on Saturday will be a tough task for City, but they can take comfort going into this from the signs of improvement that were evident before the break.