O’Regan stresses positives despite heavy loss
MATCH REACTION
Daire Walsh
DESPITE playing with an extra player for the majority of the second half, Cork City WFC ultimately suffered a 4-0 reversal at the hands of UCD Waves in Group A of the Women’s National League Shield at Jackson Park yesterday afternoon.
Speaking in the direct aftermath of the contest, City manager Niall O’Regan was understandably disappointed with the nature of the result, but was still keen to focus on some of the positives from the game.
“Definitely disappointed, but we have to be realistic. It’s a slow process. Ourselves have come in here, six, seven weeks [ago]. We’d two new signings again, that just came out of the local leagues, today. Catherine Cooke and Zoe Murphy. They’re going to be great players for us, but it’s about realising there’s such a huge step up,” O’Regan remarked.
“We played against a UCD team that will be competing to win the league. We competed with them. In the first-half, it was two individual errors that cost us the goals. We had one or two good chances, and if we’d taken one of those, it could have been a different game. You’ve got to take the positives from this. We competed.”
Following their comprehensive triumph against Kilkenny United last week, this was a significant step-up for a youthful Cork outfit. However, O’Regan pointed out that UCD enjoyed a longer pre-season than the Leesiders, and although they are still to face Wexford Youths in their final group game, he has nevertheless earmarked the league as a priority.
“UCD are together for the last two, three years. When they finish the season, they go on an off-season trip. They do a proper rest period. They come back and they train. They’ve done a 12-week pre-season. We’re only doing a five, six-week because players are in and out of the squad.
“The big focus, as it has always been for me, is the first league game. Last year, they got two points in the whole league. The year previous, they got zero.
“The big one for me is to get as many points on the board as we can, and then build on that,” O’Regan added.