Megan Lynch - It’s good to be playing regular football

Saturday afternoon saw Shelbourne U18 dump Cork City Women out of the Continental Tyres Women’s FAI Cup with an impressive 3-2 victory at Tolka Park. After the game, Megan Lynch spoke to Extratime.ie about her sides’ victory.

“We’re delighted, in fairness, we knew it was going to be a battle today - obviously we’re going up against Cork [City’s] Women’s National League team. We knew what they were about from last season [with Raheny], but we knew they had a few new signings and we knew was going to be a tough game - it was a great.”

After being restricted to a limited role from the bench for Raheny United in the Women’s National League, Lynch is delighted to be back playing regular football with Shelbourne Ladies.

“It’s good to get ninety minutes now and with Casey [McQuillan] there watching a few of us, but it’s good to get a good run out and I’m delighted I played well.”

Saturday’s victory capped off a good week for Lynch as last Wednesday, she saw her performances in the Shelbourne summer side recognised when she came off the bench for Ireland under nineteens in their 3-1 victory against Northern Ireland.

“It was good to get a run out with the nineteens, back with the international set-up again and to play well today, but the win today is the most important and that's the main thing.”

Shels victory against Cork threw up a conundrum for Shelbourne as they now have two sides in the quarter-finals of the FAI Cup, and Lynch knows it’s possible the sides could meet, but she’d rather avoid a clash with the Women’s National League side.

“If it comes to that stage, we’ll see what happens, but hopefully we’ll avoid the first team, but we’ll have to see what happens now when the draw comes.”

With the Women’s National League beginning next weekend when Shelbourne travel to Galway in the first round of the Shield and the midfielder is hoping to be part of the squad, but if she isn’t, she is willing to continue to work hard to earn her place with the WNL squad.

“Please god, if I get the call up, but I’ll take each game as it comes and I’ll keep performing well please god.”

One of the huge benefits of Raheny United’s merger with Shelbourne Ladies is that there are now more opportunities for Lynch to get game time and she feels the rise in competition, along with more teams gives her the opportunity for game time - while showing the Women’s National League management she is good enough to make the step up to the first team.

“I feel there’s more players now, so we are all pushing for places - there’s two teams and if you're not playing with the first team, you’ll be down to the second team. It’s given everybody a boost to perform well, if you're not playing well your sent down and if you perform well Casey will recognise it and bring you up [to the Women’s National League side]. Once I keep myself fit and healthy and am performing well, I feel good mentally and physically.”