WNL Preview: City vs Athlone

It’s a return to Women’s National League action for Danny Murphy’s Cork City FC side on Saturday afternoon when Athlone Town are the visitors to Turners Cross for the 5pm kick-off, the game also on LoITv.ie. The teams last met just seven days ago in the FAI Cup, the Shannonsiders emerging victorious after two late second half goals saw off a challenge of a depleted but resolute city squad.

Danny Murphy is looking forward to the game, and admits he’s enjoying the games against Athlone, despite the results because it shows how his team have been progressing. “The two games we’ve played against Athlone since I’ve been here, we’ve been in the game for long periods. Athlone are a brilliant test and I think we cause them problems, but they’ve had the upper hand on us. League tables don’t lie, they’re a better team than us right now, but I feel we’re starting to be more competitive and maybe close the gap a little.”

“It’s just been a week since we played Athlone and while the result was disappointing, the performance wasn’t. Looking back on the video of the game, it’s one of our better performances. I know we’re progressing, but little things that lead to goals, sometimes you think you’ve not come on in certain areas, but really looking back on the game and especially with the injuries we had, tthe players were brilliant.”

“We obviously want to build on that going into this weekend, but I’ve got proper headaches around the squad now. All the girls that have come in have stepped up, they’ve made a claim on places and while we have to manage the load and the expectation around the younger girls, there’s real competition for places. Training has been brilliant, it’s improving all the time.”

“I think everyone can see the improvement, but we all want to move on from hearing ‘you deserved more out of that game’. We know that ourselves, the players know it, and it can be frustrating, but we want to move on to getting some results as a reward for the performances we’re seeing.

We have two big games in a week now, we’ll be looking to get something out of the game today so we can go into the Sligo game on a bit of a bounce and more confidence. We can feel things turning our way, it almost feels like we just need that little bit of luck. Athlone are a very strong side but we’ve shown we can put up a fight, and hopefully we’ll have a crowd there to support the team and squeeze that little more out of us and we can get a result.