Murphy wants City to be consistent after heavy semi-final loss
WOMEN’S SOCCER
Daire Walsh
Following their 5-0 loss to Shelbourne in the semi-final of the Women’s FAI Cup at Tolka Park last Saturday, Cork City boss Danny Murphy said that his side will have to show more consistency if they are to push on to the next level.
Supplementing Noelle Murray’s brace of goals, Kate Mooney, Christie Gray and Megan Smyth-Lynch also found the net to help Shels reach their fourth successive FAI Cup decider.
The Leesiders had defeated Douglas Hall and Bohemians on their way to the last-four, but came off second best to their Dublin counteprarts in the Drumcondra venue.
However, this was City’s first time to reach the semi-final since 2020 and even with two games still left to play against DLR Waves and Sligo Rovers, they have already surpassed their Women’s Premier Division tally from 2023 by 12 points.
Yet Cork have also leaked 38 goals and kept just four clean sheets in their 18 games to date in the 2024 edition of the WPR and this defensive weakness is something Murphy feels will have to be addressed going into next year’s league.
“It has been an improved season,” Murphy said.
“We had a good start to the season and a mid-point to the season.
“It has just been a bit more difficult towards the end. We’ve had a few injuries and things like that, we’ve had to mix around the team,” Murphy said after last weekend’s game.
“The back-four has changed a bit too much for my liking, but we just probably haven’t had the consistency in performance towards the latter end of the season.
“We’re at a stage where we’re improving and we’re getting better.
“We’re still getting to where we need to get to, but trying to be more consistent is the biggest thing for us. Can we consistently perform and keep clean sheets?
“I think going away from this year and this season, the main thing will be keeping clean sheets next year.
“That’s what we need to try and stop.”
While won comprehensively, it wasn’t until the 35th minute that the hosts broke the deadlock.
Just moments before Kate Mooney’s opener, a precise pass had put City’s Becky Cassin through on goal, but she pulled her shot wide of the post.
Although there is a possibility the game could have followed a different trajectory if Cassin had fired past Amanda McQuillan, Murphy also acknowledged that they didn’t create enough openings to give themselves a fighting chance at pulling off a surprise victory.
“We had a game plan going into the game of how we could get runners from central areas in midfield,” Murphy said.
“It worked perfectly, but it was the first phase of the game where we got three or four good passes and we created the chance.
“We just didn’t do it enough in the game and we didn’t play particularly well on the ball today,” Murphy added.