Kelleher pleased with City revival
LADIES SOCCER
Daire Walsh
FOLLOWING their 4-1 defeat to UCD Waves in the Women’s National League at Jackson Park on Sunday afternoon, Cork City WFC manager Frank Kelleher revealed that he was extremely pleased with the second half performance of his team.
Kelleher was taking charge of Cork for the first time since Niall O’Regan’s departure from the role and, although he acknowledged that the first-half performance could have been better, he was quick to accentuate the positives of their display after the restart.
“Yeah, I was very happy with the second half performance, because it was 1-1 in the second half.
“I think defensively, our shape was much better,” Kelleher remarked.
“I think people recognised their roles and responsibilities much better, and we played on the counter attack, and we had a couple of other chances that, on another day, we could have taken.
“The first half performance could have been better, there’s no doubt about it, but I’m delighted with the girls’ performance in the second half.”
The Leesiders were facing into a three-goal deficit at the midway point in the contest, and only for some excellent saves by netminder Trish Fennelly, they could have been even further in arrears heading into the second period.
Kelleher has been impressed by Fennelly throughout the current campaign, and believes her form warrants an international call-up.
“Trish Fennelly for me this year has turned into one of the best ‘keepers in the country. I think her shot-stopping ratio is up there with the best of them at the moment.
“I think she made five or six fantastic saves again today. She has really put herself [into international contention]. For me, [Ireland manager] Sue Ronan should be looking at her. That’s my view, I think she’s at that level.”
Moving forward to their next league encounter against Galway WFC on Saturday week, Kelleher feels that his side can take a lot of encouragement from their second-half showing against UCD.
Indeed, with a number of players expected back from injury and international duty, the depth of the Cork squad should be strengthened in the coming weeks.
“There’s an awful lot to work with. We were missing four players through injury. We have four Irish U17 internationals away in Poland at the moment that have to come back into the squad and our captain is out.
“We have Katie McCarthy, who is a very seasoned League of Ireland player, coming back from a long-term injury.
“I think the girls did themselves very, very proud.”