Women's Weekend Preview

It’s a return to the Avenir Sports All-Island Cup competition, and a return to Dublin for Cork City FC Women this weekend. Tolka Park is the destination for the 2pm kick-off against Shelbourne FC with the other Group B game between Wexford FC and Cliftonville later in the afternoon. Two opening day draws means that all four teams are on 1 point, which offers a chance for someone to take pole position heading into the final group game.

Shelbourne will start the game as favourites, unbeaten in five games in both competitions, they’ve recorded a single win which sees them lying in third place in the SSE Airtricity table. City themselves are unbeaten in three, with a win and two draws all away from home.

While manager Danny Murphy will be looking to extend that run, it’s also an opportunity to rotate. “We had a good result last week; another positive result to build on. With it being the All-Island Cup, we’re going to look at giving some game time to girls who haven’t played as much, it’s a squad game and we’re going to need everyone through the season so it’s a good opportunity to get minutes in, let them play and see how they go. It's been difficult to get additional games into the schedule around Cork. It won’t be an easy game, Shels are always difficult but it’s a great opportunity to get another quality game against a team who will be title contenders come the end of the season.”

If you can’t get to Tolka, the game will be streamed live on LOITV.ie which is included in the season pass, or the game can be bought individually for €5.

WU17 Preview

Saturday also sees our WU17 side in action at 2pm, and it’s a Munster Derby against a Waterford side topping the table and Manager Craig Robinson is delighted to be back in action “I suppose with the Wexford game getting called off on the day and the Kerry game getting called off due to the Orange warning it’s actually 4 weeks since we’ve had a game. It hasn’t been ideal, it’s been a tough period for us all, it’s hard to plan without that gameday routine. But we’re delighted to be back to full strength, which was the advantage of the break and facing into a run of games now. Waterford will be a great game, a tough test but no fear, I fully believe in the girls and the ability that we have as a team. I think we have our bad day against Bray behind us, the girls have trained very well. We’ve tweaked a few bits tactically, so looking forward to it and hopefully a positive result.”

WU19 Preview

It’s Cobh at home on Sunday for our WU19 team. The previous meeting between the sides came on the opening day and City recorded a 5-0 win. While manager Trish Fennelly-Hunt is taking nothing for granted, her desire to bounce back from a 1-0 loss to Wexford FC last weekend is evident. “Yeah, we’re looking to kick on from the game last week. We were disappointed not to get at least a point last week, it was a great game with very little in it. A local derby against Cobh this week is great, we’re up for it, it means the girls have their heads screwed on, have been training well and we really can’t wait to get out on the pitch and hopefully back to winning ways. It’s going to be a challenge, every time we play each other it’s tough, and often feisty but I think we’ve the quality to go and get the three points”