Collins pleased with immediate impact of returning Farmer
SOCCER
Daire Walsh
CORK City WFC manager Rónán Collins hailed the impact of Emma Farmer in his side’s 1-1 draw against UCD Waves in the Women’s National League last Sunday.
Following a memorable spell with the Cork ladies footballers, Farmer played a starring role off the bench for the Leesiders on her return to domestic soccer.
During her short time back at the club – her signing was only announced in the build-up to the game – Farmer has already exerted a positive influence on the squad.
“I would have had Emma before, back in the inaugural season of the National League. She’s added so much to the squad already, even in the few weeks she’s been in. It’s great to see her come onto the pitch and she had a real impact. She just allowed us to press that bit higher in midfield,” Collins remarked after Sunday’s game.
“It’s great to have Emma around, and pleased God there’ll be one or two big names coming in as well, which is only going to grow the momentum we’ve built for ourselves. It’s also going to add more competition into the squad.”
In addition to the influential Farmer, Collins was also pleased with the contribution made by Saoirse Noonan – who made her own senior inter-county debut for the Cork ladies in their Munster final victory over Kerry less than 24 hours earlier.
“Saoirse was really good today. She set it back for our goal. She set it back for Eadaoin Lyons, who has played Katie McCarthy through. She has had a really good impact for us. From going from playing the game yesterday, to playing today and putting in that good performance. We’re quite happy with that as well.”
While understandably keen to reflect on the positive aspects of his team’s performance, Collins (who will take charge of City on an interim basis until the end of the season) acknowledged that a number of missed opportunities in a frantic finale leaves them with significant room for improvement.
“It was a positive performance, there was definitely a lot more organisation. I’d say it’s the first time all season we’ve finished stronger than the opposition. We were happy enough with the performance, but obviously we were disappointed we couldn’t get over the line with those goals.
“If you want to win football matches, you don’t leave the risk that you’re only a goal better than a team. You need to be a few goals better than teams, because then it doesn’t come down to a save here, a shot there, a decision there,” Collins added.