WNL Preview: Wexford Youths vs City

Ferrycarrig Park and Wexford Youths FC await Danny Murphy’s Cork City WNL side Saturday evening and an upbeat Murphy is looking at the game as another chance to see how his squad have been developing and he’s confident that his side are capable of upsetting the odds.

“That’s where the thought process is for James, myself, and the other staff. It’s taking stock of where we are right now and then what we can improve and work on to get us to the levels where we can consistently compete with the top of the table teams.”

Coming from a weekend off, Murphy gave the squad a few days break. “Training has been really intense, the levels hare great so I was happy to get the girls a few days rest because that’s hugely important for them too. It means we’ve been able to prepare and are fresh going into the weekend’s game.”

“We’re not going down there to set up shop, we are going in to try to win the game, play our way and cause them some problems. We’re very confident with the level of player we have that we can match any team in the league, but the difference for us right now is that we’re still not creating enough clearcut chances for our forwards to score, we’re trying to score off half-chances. We need to work on patience in that final third, maybe taking an extra touch. Other teams are creating those clear chances and are clinical when they get them. That’s the main reason the table is the way it is at the moment.”

Eva Mangan won the Buy4Pets.ie Goal of the Month competition for August, which factors goals from Men’s and Women’s games and Murphy laughs at the memories “It’s an exceptional goal, but we’d been practicing set-pieces on the Thursday in training and they were rubbish. James said to me “If we score from a set-piece Saturday I will be very f**king surprised – those were his exact words. Then Eva scores an amazing set-piece to win the game. Eva’s got all the talent in the world, but her work-rate and desire to improve is what set’s her apart, she really wants it, she wants to improve and progress and we’re so lucky that we see that desire right across the squad. No one wants to settle”.

Finally, on Eva Mangan again, and Chloe Atkinson who have been called up to the Irish U19 squad. “It’s a fantastic opportunity for the girls and we’re all delighted for them. As you get older you realise that not many people can say that they’ve played for their country, it’s such an honour. The timing isn’t ideal from our point of view coming between the Wexford and Galway games, but we would never begrudge the girls the chance, it’s a huge credit to them”