Athlone aiming to reach second successive Women's Cup final
By John Dingle
Athlone Town are just one win away from reaching the FAI Women's Cup final for the second year in a row. Sligo Rovers are standing in Athlone's way and the sides will do battle at the Showgrounds on Saturday evening (kick-off 6pm).
Looking ahead to the upcoming FAI Cup semi-final, Athlone Town manager Ciaran Kilduff said: “It would be the dream to get to a cup final but we are taking nothing for granted. This week was managing getting minutes into legs that needed it the most so I think we are in good shape. We will have good training sessions and be ready to go.”
The semi-final draw favoured Athlone as they avoided Shelbourne and Shamrock Rovers but Kilduff is cautious about the clash with Sligo. “Well it’s probably the draw Sligo wanted at home and in fairness they are unbeaten in their last few games. It’s a cup semi-final and there’s no such thing as an easy one and Sligo will have to be respected," he said.
"We beat them 2-0 in my first game in charge and I was impressed by them, they made it difficult for us at times. We got the goals at good times but I am expecting a really tough game next,” Kilduff continued.
Looking back at the penalty drama in the quarter-final against Peamount, Kilduff praised Athlone goalkeeper Katie Keane.
“She has been brilliant since coming in with a lot of clean sheets as well and the hero in two penalty shootouts. She deserves the plaudits she is getting. The girls showed great character under pressure when taking penalties and Keane made big saves at big moments.”
On the season to date since taking over, Kilduff is happy with how things have been going. “Well the plan when I took the job was to have a good cup run and I knew that the target was to try and get to another cup final. I knew there was a good canvas to work off here and that has been the case.
“We wanted to be competitive in everything we did and we knew that the road to success might be the cup route rather than the league. The cup is our priority now but we have not had it easy in earlier rounds against Galway and Peamount.”
If it goes to penalties again, Kilduff has reason to be confident about the outcome. “I hope it doesn’t go that way but we have been there before and we will do what has to be done. Anything can happen in a cup tie and such games tend to be dramatic but we will prepare and be ready for anything.”
Reflecting on last Saturday night's narrow win over DLR Waves, Kilduff noted: “We were down a game last weekend when the Cork game was postponed and that cost us 90 minutes in our preparation. There was parts of tonight’s game that I was unhappy with but other than that it was a good night’s work.
"If you don’t take your chances, you leave yourself open to a shock but it was good preparation for what could be a similar evening in Sligo. We were working off the squad tonight that will feature in the cup game with a few of the underage players joining us."
Athlone warmed up for the cup semi-final with an easier win against DLR Waves than the 1-0 scoreline suggested.
In spite of dominating for most of the game, Kilduff's team had only a single goal to show for their efforts. It came from an unlikely source as centre-half Jesi Lynne Rossman popped up to fire a right wing cross to the net in the 24th minute.
Athlone totally dominated the first half with goalkeeper Katie Keane not called into action at any stage. It was expected that the floodgates might then open after Rossman's goal, but the visitors kept Athlone scoreless thereafter.
Athlone remain in seventh spot on the league table but are now just four points behind Galway United in fourth place.
Athlone Town (v DLR Waves): Katie Keane, Kayleigh Shine, Shauna Brennan, Jesi Lynne Rossman, Dana Scheriff, Chloe Singleton, Laurie Ryan, Lauren Karabin, Roisin Molloy, Madison Gibson, Kate Slevin. Subs: Muireann Devaney and Kellie Brennan for Brennan and Ryan (half-time); Gillian Keenan for Molloy (68 mins); Antea Guyo and Lucy Jane Grant for Gibson and Slevin (82).