‘Getting to the final is brilliant for Peamount as a club’
By Stephen Leonard
PEAMOUNT United women’s team manager James O’Callaghan insists that securing a day out in the Aviva Stadium is no more than what his players deserve.
The Newcastle side will be heading to the headquarters of Irish soccer on Sunday, November 4 after Amber Barrett struck late to see them beat Shelbourne 2-1 in last night’s Continental Tyres FAI Women's Cup semi final at Tolka Park.
Amber Barrett hit the winner for Peamount United in last night's WFAI Cup semi final against Shelbourne
Aine O'Gorman put them in front only to see Malinda Allen square the tie on the stroke of the half-time, but Peamount had the final say when Ireland international Barrett found the back of the net 13 minutes from time to set up a decider against Wexford Youths.
Delighted at seeing his side book further passage to the decider, O’Callaghan told The Echo: “The last time we played Shels in Tolka Park they beat us 3-0.
“It probably wasn’t a fair reflection on the game, but Shels are a good side and we knew we couldn’t just allow them to play.
“I felt we dominated the first 30 minutes and we got that goal, but they came back into it in the last 15 minutes of the first half and got the equaliser.
“But in the second half we just came right out of the blocks and dominated again. The players threw themselves into tackles and just didn’t allow them [Shels] to get going.
“And then Amber got that winner and she could have had another, but she hit the bar.
“Getting to the final is brilliant for Peamount as a football club, because they do a lot of work, especially for women’s football in that area.
“It’s great for the players because they don’t get the recognition that they deserve and getting to the Aviva Stadium is one way of giving them some of that recognition,” he said.
While Wexford appear set to land another Women’s National League title, Peamount have already beaten them in this season’s National League Cup Final, something that O’Callaghan insists was an important factor in helping his side reach the WFAI Cup decider.
“Winning the League Cup was massive for these players because it gave them huge confidence,” he insisted.
“It showed that if we could beat Wexford in Wexford to win that cup we could beat Shels in Tolka Park to reach the [WFAI Cup] final,” he said.
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