United Cork ladies footballers flying high in league: Everybody's gelling well together

It was another good day for the Cork ladies footballers on Saturday at Páirc Uí Rinn.

They kept their winning run going in the Lidl Ladies National Football League as they got the better of Waterford in a tight game by 1-12 to 3-5.

There was never going to be much between the two sides and it took a late free from Katie Quirke to secure the win for the Rebels.

That pushed them on to 13 points and are now well in contention to reach the league final – not bad for a side that many felt would be relegated.

Needless to say, manager Joe Carroll, was delighted to get another win and stretch their lead at the top of the table.

“Yeah, it is very pleasing, they showed great heart coming towards the end of it there where we had lost what was a six or seven point lead,” said Carroll.

“They drew level and it didn't look good. But then we got a winning point from Katie again, an excellent free.

“But the pleasing thing about it was we held the ball for the last two minutes and Waterford just couldn't get their hands in it. And that was very, very, very pleasing.

Even though we conceded a few soft goals, I think we played very well in the second half.

“Some of our football was exceptionally good. Our forward play in the first half wasn't great. and I think it was much, much improved.

“They listened to what we told them at half-time, and it was much improved in the second half. But it would be a concern that we conceded a few goals to let Waterford back into it.

“But that’s something to work on, we have three weeks now, I know there's college games in between, but we have three weeks to try and work on little bits of things and hopefully we'll have a look at a few more players.

“We have a practice game pinned and things like that, so it would be a chance to have a look at everybody in our squad. And look, they're all together and you could see it there at the finish, how delighted even the subs were.

“They were counting down from 10 down to 0 at the finish, which was fierce. It was great to see it all together.

“We're delighted with it and everybody's gelling well together, the management are working fierce hard all together. Every single one of them from our S&C, our selectors, our coaches, our psychologist, everyone.

“Our nutritionist has made a massive difference as well this year, and the board are fully supportive of us, so it makes things very easy, and every one of the players are committing to it.

IN DEMAND

“I said previously, it's a very difficult time of the year for inter-county players who are involved in college competitions. 

I hear them complaining at inter-county level about the Sigerson and the Fitzgibbon Cups, but the O'Connor Cup hasn't finished at all yet.

“They are finished with two weeks, so we have tremendous respect for players from all counties that are involved in the O’Connor Cup. We have players playing on during the week, so we will have to manage that before our game with Meath in a few weeks.”