UCD Waves 4-1 Cork City Women’s FC (Nolan 5’, 28’, O’Gorman 23’, Berrill 70’; Desmond 63’)
After enduring 126 days of frustration, the players of UCD Waves finally crossed the white-wash for a league fixture at their home base of Jackson Park – their first of the season. Even more incredibly, it’s almost 10 months since they hosted Peamount United in a home league game at the tail-end of the 2014/15 season. On this occasion they took their frustration out on a hard-working Cork City side, who had no match for Waves’ midfield creativity or guile going forward.
Waves, and indeed the others in the Continental Tyres Women’s National League must face-up to a fixtures backlog, with time running out to complete the 2015/16 league campaign. Their manager, Eileen Gleeson, speaking in the aftermath of their 4-1 victory over Cork City spoke of the difficulties that lie ahead. “The back fixtures will definitely affect us. There’ll be three games per week, which will be hard to sustain for the girls.” She also seemed to pour cold water over the possibility of extending the league season, were it an option. “I wouldn’t think they’ll extend the league, as we have a lot of students with exams, so we can’t afford to extend it because we wouldn’t have the players available. I think it will be tough for everyone. People will have back matches, teams will be travelling mid-week, will they have players available? I think it will change the landscape of the league.” She is adamant though, that following the lead of the men’s game in Ireland is the only logical step for this fledgling league. “I think that’s what’s coming (a switch to summer football). You couldn’t go through another season like this – three months without a game. It’s nobody’s fault but I think a switch would be positive.”
In the match, midfielder Orlagh Nolan helped herself to a brace inside 28 minutes to put this game to bed early. Her first after 5 minutes, was a well-taken effort from a left wing cross, with the second arriving just before the 30 minute mark, aided by a deflection. Sandwiched in between those goals was a typically tidy lob from skipper Áine O’Gorman, as UCD played into the wind in the first half. O’Gorman might have made it four before the break, but she shanked Chloe Mustaki’s cross over the bar when well-placed. Cork City found it hard to live with the incisive passing of Julie Ann Russell, Caroline Thorpe and Jetta Berrill – the latter linking up well with the former in constant raids down the right flank.
Cork briefly rallied in the second half, pulling a goal back through Ciara Desmond, when her rasping shot dropped under the bar and over the line at the back post via Monika McGuirk’s gloves. That goal failed to take the wind out of Waves’ sails though, as a superb Thorpe pass laid-on a fourth for the home side. The Cork City management team – headed up by Frank Kelleher for the first time – must have been pulling their collective hair out. A mix-up in defence following Thorpe’s pass allowed Jetta Berrill to steal in between goalkeeper and defenders, to coolly slot the ball into the bottom corner for 4-1. Berrill then stung the palms of the over-worked Trish Fennelly on 71, while the Cork stopper kept out Thorpe at the near post on 80, before further denying O’Gorman with a smart stop with her foot in injury time.
UCD will need to tighten-up at the back ahead of next weekend’s visit of Wexford Youths in the League Cup, as they coughed up a few second half chances to Cork – who look a distance off their opponents. They’ll want to avoid a repeat of their league defeat in Wexford earlier this month, where they shipped four goals, Gleeson admitted, “Four mistakes lead to four goals”.
UCD Waves: McGuirk; Berrill; Cahill; Hackett; Prior; Mustaki; Nolan; Thorpe; Cronin; Russell; O’Gorman.
Subs not used: 2 (unknown).
Cork City Womens FC: Fennelly; O’Donovan; Murphy; O’Brien; Duncliffe; Kelleher; Carroll (69’ Hurley); B.O’Connell (59’ Carry); Desmond; Daly; R.O’Connell.
Subs not used: O’Reilly; McNamara; McCarthy.
Attendance: 30 (estimate)
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