- Paul Corcoran
- Tue, Mar 28 2023
Paul Corcoran reports from Tolka Park
Galway United recorded their second win of this season’s Women’s Premier Division campaign when they met Shelbourne at Tolka Park on Saturday.
The Tribeswomen had to come from behind to beat Shels 3-1 thanks to a quickfire double from Aoife Thompson and Jenna Slattery.
Phil Trill’s side had been close to a couple of big results against Wexford Youths and Bohemians earlier in the season but they had lost out narrowly on those occasions – on Saturday they recorded probably their most important win with it coming over the current Women’s Premier Division champions.
“It’s great to get, the players were outstanding today. I’ve been saying it for a couple of weeks, we’ve been playing really well but we just haven’t got the results we deserved,” Galway United manager Phil Trill said, speaking to extratime.com after the match on Saturday.
“Last week we probably should have beaten Bohs. They’re a really good group of ladies and they’re playing well. They’re playing decent football in terms of their making decision they’re being progressive.
“Look delighted now, we’ll start to believe now. This isn’t talking about any titles or anything, this is just starting to believe we’re as good as anybody else, and we are.
“I thought they were amazing today. We’re such a young team, we’ve got lovely experience throughout the team but just for us we’re so happy with the result, but the performance was amazing.
“I thought we really controlled the game for large spells. Rode our luck at the end, went down to ten. Harsh sending off I felt but look, it is what it is.”
United went behind early on thanks to a Jessie Stapleton goal for the home side, and very nearly went two goals down shortly after when Jemma Quinn got in behind the defence and Trill acknowledged his side were possibly a bit nervy but managed to bounce back well and control the game.
“It was a case that we were one down and probably should have been two down. I think we were just a bit rabbit in the headlights at that moment in time, but the more we focused and settled on what we were doing we grew into the game.
“I thought we controlled the game in large spells of the first half and in the second half to be fair we played a good bit of football in terms of progressiveness. Look we responded really well – you’ll have mistakes like that because we’re a new team, because we’re trying to be progressive.
“You’ll have mistakes, but the most important thing is that we’re consistently putting in these performances, we’re making good decisions and trying to develop the way we play.”
The Tribeswomen turned the game on its head when Aoife Thompson scored in the 56th minute, that was followed by a stunning Jenna Slattery free-kick two minutes later.
“That’s the other thing with youth, they’ll surprise you at times,” Trill explained.
“They really bought into the momentum, the moves we worked on in training came off and it’s a wonderful free-kick.
“Granted Courtney Maguire pulled off a wonderful save in the first half to tip it onto the bar when Jenna had her previous free kick but it’s really good to be able to bounce back from being defeated last week and also going 1 nil down today.
“It’s really positive and really progressive that these ladies are really learning. We played 20 minutes with ten players, my god the work they put in off the ball for the last 10 minutes.”
Galway United travel to face the President’s Cup champions Athlone Town on Wednesday night (kick-off 7.45pm).
