Eoin Wearen: 'They bought into our ideas and what we're trying to do, and there is a lot of change'

Paul Corcoran reports from Tolka Park

Eoin Wearen is a fifth of the way through his first season in charge of Shelbourne as of Saturday afternoon when his side drew 0-0 with Shamrock Rovers at Tolka Park.

That result sees his side in third place in the Women’s Premier Division and unbeaten after four games.

Wearen would potentially have liked another win, given his side now just have one win from those opening four games but the coach was pleased with another clean sheet with his side having concede just once in the league so far this season

“Definitely for us at the moment, one thing that we're really pleased with is the clean sheet aspect and we’re unbeaten at the moment and that's something that we want to continue and that's a great building block for us going forward,” he said, speaking to extratime.com after the game on Saturday.

“But you know, I think obviously then you need to go, especially at home, and you need to go after games and win games and I think the intentions were there with the subs that we made we brought on players that we think you know could get us a goal and could create something. And likewise, they did too so I think both sides did go for it in the end.

But I think a combination of both teams defending really well and then probably obviously the surface as well is quite poor at the moment and probably didn't allow it to be the spectacle that we would like.

Because, I know from speaking to Collie, that we're two sides that try to play football out from the back and want to play what we consider the right way anyway. Today we kind of had to mix it up a little bit and it probably didn't suit either side.”

For the Reds there will definitely be a certain amount if disappointment with Saturday’s result, especially since Pearl Slattery had the ball in the back of the net in the 20^th minute.

At the same time – they do have reason to be relieved given Amanda McQuillan’s penalty save in the 24^th minute to deny Aine O’Gorman a goal.

“We said at half time, you know, Amanda's been brilliant since I've come into the group and fantastic goalkeeper, you know, great with her feet,” Wearen said.

“But a brilliant character and a leader in the group as well and obviously really happy with the save that she made, but also the follow up.

“I think it's only when people look back and they see Amanda made the save but two or three players then recover and stop a goal from going in as a rebound.

“I said that to the girls at half time, they’re things that you know, we may look back on at the end of the season and that could make the difference. So I've got to try and take the positives out of it.”

Wearen is steadily progressing through his first season in charge having taken over from Noel King ahead of the 2024 season.

Including their All-Island Cup campaign his side are now unbeaten in all five of their competitive games this season and the former Bohemians and Sligo Rovers player is enjoying life at Tolka Park so far.

“Absolutely loving it. We've got great people at the club as a whole, from top to bottom.

“And I think within the group that we have within the dressing room, I’ve got fantastic staff around me and I think we have a good balance in terms of the personnel in the group, between senior players, really talented young players coming through, players at the peak of their career.

“It's been a fantastic group to work with. They bought into our ideas and what we're trying to do, and there is a lot of change, but we expect as the season goes on and that we'll start to really kick on and we fully believe in that.”

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— extratime.com (@ExtratimeNews) April 15, 2024