Jess Fitzgerald on the ball in the midfield for Peamount against Wexford Photo by Bartley Ramsay
Peamount Utd have a tough task against Athlone Town
THE women’s FAI Cup is back this Saturday with Peamount United taking on Athlone in the quarter-final of the tournament while Shamrock Rovers are travelling to league leaders Shelbourne.
Peamount reached this stage following a win against Cork City in the opening round of the tournament while Rovers managed a win against Waterford at the end of June.
Peamount will have a tough task on their hand when they come up against Athlone.
Currently on a poor run of form the Peas have been without a win in their last four games with their last victory actually being the game against Cork City in the previous round of the cup.
Athlone are considered to be one of the top two teams in the country and, despite suffering a slight dip in form at the moment domestically – last three games have all been draws – they performed very well in the champions league recently scoring seven goals in just two games.
Peamount manager Emma Donohoe spoke on the opposition ahead of the upcoming game.
“Their front three obviously [is a threat]. Rosin Molloy, Maddie Gibson and Kelly Brady up top, they’ve got pace upfront in all areas.
‘They are a strong aggressive team with good players all over the pitch.
‘The other side is that, so do we. Let’s play to our strengths and see if we can get the best performance out of everybody on the pitch.
‘Look to alleviate the mistakes we’ve been making. It’s always been in the last ten minutes of the games whether it’s a lack of concentration or tiredness kicking in.”
“The talent and the quality of the players is there. It’s getting that out of them all every week consistently, consistency has been our problem I think.
‘Sometimes we play excellently and everyone feels great and then the next week we’re not so great.
‘It’s just finding that balance. The league has gotten a lot stronger and teams are stronger around the league.
‘You have to be consistent and tuned in for 90 minutes, as we saw on Saturday it’s no good doing it for 80-85 minutes. It can change in a second. Good quality players will hurt you.”
Shamrock Rovers are also looking to get back to winning ways after losing their last two fixtures in the league with the most recent being a 2-1 defeat to Galway in Tallaght Stadium.
They travel to Tolka Park to take on Shelbourne with manager Stephanie Zambra commenting after the loss to Galway.
“Again look we’ve got tough games, this week and last week, we’ve Shels next so they’re not getting any easier.
‘Shels are a top-quality side and we know how good they are.
‘They’ve got some very experienced and quality players so we just have to prepare the right way and get out there next Friday night and give it our best shot and I’m sure the girls will do that.”
Shelbourne currently are league leaders having won all but two of their 14 league fixtures so far this season.
The game is set to take place in Tolka Park Friday evening with a 7.45pm kick-off.
