IN the wake of an emphatic defeat at the hands of Shelbourne in the Women’s Premier Division at Tolka Park last Saturday week, Cork City manager Danny Murphy acknowledged his side will need to find a greater level of consistency.

Coming into the fixture with three wins, one draw and three defeats to their name, the Leesiders weren’t able to build on a recent league victory at home to Shamrock Rovers – albeit they did lose out to Cliftonville in the All-Island Cup seven days earlier.

A brace of early goals from Rebecca Devereux put Shels into the driving seat at the weekend and while Colleen Kennedy O’Connell fired back for City, Noelle Murray, former Cork star Eabha O’Mahony and Alex Kavanagh found the net to ensure the hosts came away with a 5-1 success.

Murphy’s charges had picked up four points from back-to-back league visits to Dublin to face Bohemians and DLR Waves earlier in the season, but were ultimately second-best throughout their most recent game.

“We didn’t play well. The reality is that we gave them far too many opportunities to score goals and made too many mistakes.

“Second half, if we take our opportunity with Eva [Mangan] and it’s 3-2, it might be a different story in the game, but they don’t miss chances. They finish them,” Murphy remarked after their reversal to Shelbourne.

“We’ve had some decent results, but we’ve got to be consistent. 

“We can’t be good one week, not great the next week. It’s so frustrating for everyone. We’ve got to find some level of consistency and we’ve got to keep improving.

“For me, we have taken a step backwards today, but we’ve got to now try and move forward again in the next week.”

BREAK

Still in fifth spot in the Women’s Premier Division table at the end of last weekend’s action, City will aim for a return to winning ways against defending FAI Women’s Cup champions Athlone Town at Turner’s Cross on June 8.

The current international window is the reason that City have a fortnight to prepare for that game, but one of their players will be kept busy over the next few days.

On the back of excellent form on the domestic front for Cork, Eva Mangan was recently called into the Republic of Ireland women’s national team squad for their double header against Sweden in the UEFA Euro 2025 qualifiers last Friday and Tuesday (June 4).

Murphy is delighted that Mangan has been recognised for her form in the current season to date and is hoping her experience of an international environment will prove to be of benefit to both her and the City squad as a whole.

“It’s brilliant for Eva and we’re all proud of her, to get the opportunity to go and do that.

“Hopefully she goes around there and playing with better players will only improve her. 

“She hopefully comes back then and she adds more and more to us, because we need her to,” Murphy added.