Murphy positive despite City defeat
WOMEN’S NATIONAL LEAGUE
Daire Walsh
THE result may not have gone their way, but Cork City manager Danny Murphy found reason to be optimistic in the wake of a 1-0 defeat to DLR Waves in the Women’s National League on Saturday.
Playing at a bright and sunny UCD Bowl, the Leesiders and their Dublin counterparts went toe-on-toe throughout the course of the action.
Although Mia Dodd’s opening half free-kick was the different between the teams in the end, Murphy believes his side displayed significant signs of progression in a lively encounter.
“I think we dominated large parts of the game. Kept the ball really well, created a lot of chances,” said Murphy.
“As I said to the girls after, I can handle losing when you lose like that.
“We created the chances, we’ve just got to be a bit more clinical in front of goal.
“It’s hard because you walk away and you’ve lost, but you walk away going ‘we actually played really well’. I thought our possession-based game was good.
“I think when we mixed the game up and we went longer, it caused them problems. The two girls in midfield, Eva [Mangan] and Becky [Cassin], I thought were class.
“They didn’t give the opposition a chance to build up an attack on us.
“The only time they got an attack was maybe poor decision-making on the ball and we got counter-attacked.
“Probably weren’t set up properly, but our back three then dealt with that.”
Given he won League of Ireland Premier Division titles as a player at both Cork City and Shamrock Rovers, Murphy’s appetite for success is unquestionable.
He readily recognises that patience is required as he looks to develop a group of players that he only took charge of three months ago, but the former QPR full-back senses that they aren’t far off claiming a big scalp in the WNL.
“A win for us is not a million miles away, beating one of the top-four teams.
“We’re getting closer and closer every week. We’ve just got to stick together and keep it going.
“All the things we’re working on, all the things we’re doing, they’re coming into the games. That’s a massive positive,” said Murphy.
“If what we had worked on in training, and the things we’ve worked on over the last six, seven weeks, didn’t start happening in the games I’d be more concerned.
“We’ve given you a lot of information, we’ve changed a lot of stuff since we’ve come in. You’ve taken it on and it’s now starting to show.
“The results will come.”