There were first wins of the 2020 Women’s National League season for both Athlone Town and Cork City, while the title race took an interesting turn. With the top two teams – Shelbourne and Peamount United – not winning, Wexford Youths and Galway WFC took a giant leap forward by picking up positive results.
Athlone Town 3-2 Treaty United
There was a lot of talk about the goalscoring potential of Aoife Horgan ahead of this fixture and the Treaty United forward responded by doubling her tally for the season. However, this day belonged to Athlone, who responded to Horgan’s first goal after three minutes with a goal of their own through Katelyn Keogh – poking the ball home from close range. Horgan hit back when she pounced on a parry from goalkeeper Niamh Coombes, but it was all square by the interval when Athlone captain Paula Doran chipped the ball into the back of the net from the edge of the penalty area. Treaty will be disappointed in how they ultimately lost this one as the third goal came from defensive errors that eventually saw Kellie Brennan score. This is a big win for Athlone that will give them a lot of confidence.
Bohemians 3-4 Cork City
Even though they haven’t played Week 2, Cork City made a fast start to this game by scoring two goals inside the opening half hour through Lauren Egbuloniu and Christina Dring. Bohs have been making steady improvements and they scrapped their way back into the contest due to goals from Aoife Robinson and Alannah Maxwell. Cork retook the lead when Lauren Shine netted a brace late on and that proved to be too much for the home side, even though Maxwell got another goal back. For Ronan Collins’ Cork side, this is an important win as it gets them off the mark for the season and shows that their young side can score goals.
Galway WFC 1-1 Shelbourne
It was always going to take something special to separate these two teams considering their competitive nature. And it looked as though that arrived through Chloe Singleton’s thunderbolt strike on 27 minutes, The hosts needed to register an early blow to their opponents and Singleton provided exactly that to put Billy Clery’s team in front. Shels, who went into this game as League leaders, knew that they had to respond. Their goal did not arrive until the hour mark when Jessica Ziu got enough space to fire in. While both teams will be disappointed not to have secured a win, a point apiece will boost their chances of being in the top half of the table when the season splits.
Wexford Youths 3-0 Peamount United
Ellen Molloy will be hoping to make the final cut for the Republic of Ireland Women’s National Team squad following her first call-up and a brace of goals here will certainly have helped. The Kilkenny native netted one in each half after Nicola Sinnott opened the scoring on 12 minutes when finding herself in the right place to meet a delivery from a corner kick and head in. Peamount had not conceded a goal in their previous four games this season, but they fell further behind when Molloy showed her alertness to steal possession from Dearbhaile Beirne and then fire into the back of the net. Tom Elmes’ team were looking for a reaction following a narrow defeat to Shelbourne and this was it as Molloy wrapped things up when curling in a left-footed effort after her first shot was blocked by keeper Niamh Reid-Burke.
Next Fixtures
Tuesday, September 8th
Treaty United v Cork City, Jackman Park, KO 19:45
Saturday, September 12th
DLR Waves v Bohemians, Jackson Park, KO 18:30
Peamount United v Galway WFC, PRL Park, KO 18:30
Sunday, September 13th
Cork City v Athlone Town, Bishopstown Stadium, KO 14:00
Treaty United v Wexford Youths, Markets Field, KO 14:00
