Athlone Town appoints new women's team manager

Athlone Town AFC has confirmed that Ciarán Kilduff has been appointed as manager of the club's senior women’s team.

Welcoming Kilduff to the role, a statement from Athlone Town outlined his achievements in the game.

"Ciarán is well known in the League of Ireland where he had a very distinguished career having won the First Division title with UCD (2009) and Shelbourne (2019) and the Premier Division title with Shamrock Rovers (2011) and Dundalk (2015 and 2016). Indeed, his exploits in Europe with Dundalk are the stuff of legend having scored the equalizer against AZ Alkmaar to ensure that Dundalk became the first Irish team to win a point in the group stages of a European competition and he then followed that up by scoring the winner against Maccabi Tel Aviv in the next group game."

Kilduff succeeds Athlone native Tommy Hewitt as manager - click here for article on Hewitt's departure from the role.

Kilduff's first game in charge will be away to Linfield in the Avenir Sports All-Island Cup this Saturday.

Kilduff commented on his appointment: “I’m delighted to be here and to get this opportunity to manage at the top level of women’s football and I’m looking forward to getting started with the girls.

"We have a game at the weekend with Linfield FC which will be an ideal opportunity to see them in competitive action before the break and we can then develop our plan of action for the second half of the season.”

Kilduff holds a UEFA 'A' coaching licence and in recent years has been working in women’s football, while also managing the Maynooth University women’s team.

Athlone Town currently lie in seventh position of the 11 teams in this season's SSE Airtricity Women's Premier Division.