Cork City WFC hoping to turn good form into a win at Athlone Town
Cork City manager Danny Murphy on the line against Peamount United at Turner's Cross. Picture: Eddie O'Hare
AFTER last week’s narrow loss to title-chasing Peamount United at Turner’s Cross, Cork City go again with a trip to Athlone Town, with kick-off set for 7pm.
Danny Murphy and his players returned from the break and pushed the three-time champions to limit, with Lauren Walsh’s goal into the Shed End blowing things wide open in the second half.
This was a reward for a sustained period of pressure that forced Peamount deep into their own half. City created a number of chances throughout the game, and each one of these was stopped by goalkeeper Niamh Reid Burke.
Two early goals from Kate Mooney ended up as the difference between the two teams and Peamount got the three points.
Saturday also saw another impressive performance from Eva Mangan, who recently scored the winner for the Republic of Ireland U19s against Norway.
The captain has slowly established herself as the engine in City’s attack, and last week she sent in the free-kick that led to Walsh scoring.
City now have to pick themselves off and go to Athlone Town Stadium, the home ground of last year’s surprise package.
Athlone finished second in the Women’s National League in 2022 and they reached the Women’s FAI Cup final.
They picked up where they left off by defeating Shelbourne in the President’s Cup final at the start of the season, and they are now sixth with seven points collected from five games.
Their most recent result was a 3-1 victory over a Wexford Youths team that has title aspirations of their own at Ferrycarrig Park. Muireann Devaney put them 1-0 up with just two minutes on the clock. After Rianna Jarrett equalised, Dana Scheriff scored a brace and that gave Athlone their second league win of the season.
Murphy knows that his team will be tested Saturday in the midlands, and he wants his players to take confidence from their second-half showing against Peamount at Turner’s Cross.
"Take that into next weekend’s game and we got to be confident that we can be up there and get a positive result,” he said.
City played Athlone twice towards the end of the 2022 season and they were narrowly beaten on both occasions. The first game was in the Women’s FAI Cup and they lost 2-0 at Athlone Town Stadium.
Their next meeting at Turner’s Cross ended with the visitors getting a 2-1 win. If history is anything to go by, there will be very little between City and Athlone on Saturday night.
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