WNL: City v Sligo Preview

Cork City Women welcome Sligo Rovers to Turner’s Cross on Saturday for the first ever competitive game with the Bit O’ Red, who have entered the SSE Airtricity Women’s league for the first time in 2022. We spoke to Paul Farrell to reflect on our opening day loss to Galway WFC, the postponed game away to Treaty United and the visit of Sligo Rovers.

The opening game resulted with a 3-0 loss to Galway United which left Farrell with mixed feelings “After the game I was very disappointed with the result and probably a little disappointed with the performance, but on reflection we had some good passages of play and in the second half we dominated long periods. We just need to rectify the little errors we saw in the first half, and we can start competing better”.

“Going in two down at half time means you’re chasing. I don’t think we did enough to say we could have taken three points, but I think we were capable of the draw if we’d had our best foot forward. There was a lot of positives to take, in the second half we did play well but we need to turn that positive play into goal scoring opportunities”.

Another bright spark from the Galway game was the competitive senior debut of Orlaith Deasy, a standout player from last season’s U17 side. “Yeah, we called Orlaith into the squad on Friday, we told her we couldn’t guarantee her a debut, but the way the game was going I just felt that what she was showing in training was something that we needed in fairness when she stepped on, she didn’t look out of place and she had a very solid debut with hopefully many more games to come, she’s a really promising player who we’ve watched for a long time and who’s been in at the club for a number of years”.

Last weekend saw the scheduled game away to Treaty United called off. “It was disappointing. On Friday afternoon their men’s game was called off, and our game was called off that night. It’s unfortunate we hadn’t the opportunity to bounce straight back but we organised a training session instead of the game and that did us the world of good, blew off a few cobwebs and allowed us to focus on Sligo”.

The Bit O’ Red have had a slow start to the season, but Farrell takes nothing for granted. “Sligo had a first tough game against Peamount, but they improved a lot and were very good in front of a great crowd against DLR”.

“They’re really pushing the women’s game up there and it’s great to have them in the league. They’ve signed some great players and put together a strong squad. They’ll be competitive, surprise people and take a lot of points. We must make sure that’s not against us, we need to give a good performance and if we’re on our game I think we can be confident”.

Farrell has a few players out with Laura Shine out and both Orlaith Deasy and Christina Dring unavailable. Nadine Seward is a doubt but will be assessed prior to the match. “A few other knocks and niggles, but nothing that should impact on the rest of the squad”.

Cork City FC Women host Sligo Rovers Women at Saturday March 19^th, with a 5pm KO.