Collins sees positives in defeat by Peamount
REACTION
Daire Walsh
Despite losing 3-0 to an Amber Barrett-inspired Peamount United at Greenogue last Saturday in the Women’s National League, Cork City WFC interim manager Rónán Collins believes his side can take a number of positives into the coming weeks.
Barrett’s opening half brace meant the visitors were chasing the game on the resumption and the Republic of Ireland striker completed her hat-trick in the 86th-minute. However, sparked by the half-time introductions of Savannah McCarthy and Christina Dring, City stepped up their performance levels.
“We probably didn’t do enough in the first half. Second half, we’ve really gotten at them. Thrown the kitchen sink at them, but they [Peamount] have done really well. Kept their clean sheet even with that pressure,” Collins stated.
“We’ve had to make two changes because of injuries at half-time. The two girls that came on had a really good impact and then obviously we’ve brought a third sub [Clare Shine] on early in the half, because someone else was tight. We can be a bit disappointed with the scoreline, but it does show we still have work to do also.”
The return to fitness of both McCarthy and Shine is a considerable boost for Collins and his coaching staff, who had to contend without the services of Amanda Budden and Saoirse Noonan for this latest trip on the road.
“They’re all getting closer. Obviously Clare and Savannah coming back in, you can see their impact as well. They’re only going to get sharper, getting minutes under the belt, getting more sessions under the belt.
“We now have two weeks between here and our next game. We’ve a lot of time now to get work and to tighten up on a lot of stuff, but it’s starting to come together we feel. It’s growing underneath the ground, we just need to see the seeds pop up.”
After falling to their third defeat in four league games, Collins was eager to point out how tough their recent fixtures have been. He feels they are getting closer to producing a consistent 90-minute display, which he hopes will come to fruition away to Galway on Saturday week.
“We’ve consistently been churning that out now for a few games and I suppose we’ve played a few of the top teams over recent weeks. We’ve pushed them and we’ve put them under pressure.
“We know ourselves as well, we’re going to have to start delivering that for 90 minutes. But it’s getting longer all the time, those periods where we’re doing that. We can be happy with the progress we’re making,” Collins added.