Women’s FAI Cup Report: Shamrock Rovers 0 - 1 Shelbourne

Shelbourne left it late, and did it with ten players, but they broke Hoops hearts in Tallaght on Monday with Megan Smyth-Lynch’s injury time winner off Stephanie Zambra in extra-time booking the Reds a place in the FAI Cup semi-final.

After this gutsy performance nobody will doubt Shels' ability to make it to their fourth FAI Cup final in row as Rovers came up short in a game that they had a player advantage for over 50 minutes.

It is an old rivalry between two famous Ringsend clubs that has a new element in the last couple of seasons with the re-emergence of Shamrock Rovers in the women’s game.

Jemma Quinn celebrating with a giant Shels flag in the centre circle after the final whistle and an absorbing tie with the visitors winning added another chapter to this Rovers and Shels rivalry.

Shels had dismissed the Hoops 2-0 in Tallaght in last year’s FAI Cup semi-final, whereas this year Rovers dumped the Reds out of the All-Island Cup in Tolka Park also at the semi-final stage.

With former players lining out for both teams and those hard fought cup encounters in the last couple of seasons, this time around the Reds earned the victory.

With the Hoops well adrift of being involved in any title race, and having lost the All-Island Cup earlier this month on penalties, this competition represented their only hope of a trophy so there was deflation at the final whistle while there was jubilation from the vocal pocket of fans who had traveled from Tolka to Tallaght for this edition of Monday night football.

There were some tasty tackles in the game with a couple having repercussions for the Reds who had to play the last 19 minutes of the 90 with ten women after they lost their skipper Pearl Slattery to a red card.

It was last year’s runners up who had the better of the play in Tallaght Stadium in the first half but the Hoops who went closest to breaking the deadlock in the first 45.

Ella Kelly, who earlier in the day was named in the Ireland u17 squad for the upcoming friendlies in Portugal, picked up a pass in the final minute of the half and clipped the top of the cross bar with Amanda McQuillan beaten.

The Shels goalkeeper was excellent with the distribution with her feet and wasn’t called upon to make a save in anger in that first half. It was a different story at the other end with ex-Red Amanda Budden saving from Christie Gray and doing it twice from Alex Kavanagh. The second save was the best of the half.

The Reds looked to exploit Keeva Keenan’s long throw-ins up the line but played plenty of football on the ground. Gray and Mooney linked up well throughout with Mooney having the ball in the net only for an offside flag to correctly rule it out.

Meanwhile the duo up top for the Hoops in skipper Áine O’Gorman and Joy Ralph weren’t able to exploit the space they could find in front of the Shelbourne’ back three meaning it remained scoreless at the break.

Hoops Head Coach Collie O’Neill made a triple switch just before the hour mark bringing on fresh legs, in particular up front with the introduction of Stephanie Zambra and Lia O’Leary.

Rovers went close to claiming the opener in the 63rd minute when captain O’Gorman sent a free kick over the Reds wall but back off the crossbar.

The Shels skipper Slattery had gone in the book in the first half for taking down Joy Ralph and when she did the same to O’Gorman in the 71st minute referee Oliver Moran gave her a second yellow and a red.

Unsurprisingly Rovers piled on the pressure and McQuillan did excellently to save from sub O’Leary when the ball came all the way out of the Ireland under-19 international before the game went to extra-time.

In the opening minute of the extra 30, Jemma Quinn raced through on goal only to see her drilled effort come back off the post.

When Budden raced out of goal and took out Quinn in the 102nd minute, the Reds fans were all screaming for a red card but with a trio of Hoops defenders around the challenge the Rovers keeper only got a yellow.

It was an impressive display by Shelbourne who didn’t just sit back and play for penalties but Rovers looked to move the ball quickly whenever they could to find the space afforded by the Slattery sending off.

We got ‘Yellow’ by Coldplay over the PA in between the first and second half of extra-time as the yellow cards mounted – four for Rovers and six for the visitors.

With the clock into the red in injury time of extra-time, Scarlett Herron conceded a free kick wide right near the end line. Megan Smyth-Lynch whipped the ball in and a touch off Stephanie Zambra saw the ball beat Budden.

The Reds roar echoed around Tallaght and Shelbourne join Athlone Town, Cork City and Sligo Rovers in the semi-final draw on Tuesday.

Shamrock Rovers WFC: Amanda Budden; Shauna Fox (Stephanie Zambra 58), Jessica Hennessy, Maria Reynolds; Katie O'Reilly (Lia O'Leary 57), Scarlett Herron, Aoife Kelly, Savannah McCarthy (Melissa O'Kane 58), Ella Kelly (Fiona Owens 102); Aine O'Gorman, Joy Ralph (Lauren Kelly 102).
Subs not used: Summer Lawless, Alannah Prizeman, Emily Corbet, Jaime Thompson.
Booked: Shaun Fox (51), Maria Reynolds (90+3), Amanda Budden (101), Scarlett Herron (120)

Shelbourne W: Amanda McQuillan; Jessica Gargan, Keeva Keenan, Pearl Slattery; Leah F Doyle, Rachel Graham (Hannah Healy 64), Alex Kavanagh, Roma McLaughlin (Megan Smyth-Lynch 112), Maggie Pierce; Christie Gray (Jemma Quinn 86), Kate Mooney (Noelle Murray 64).
Subs not used: Caoimhe Magee, Nia Hannon, Lucy O'Rourke, Katie McCarn, Rebecca Devereux.
Booked: Leah Doyle (15), Pearl Slattery (17 and 71), Roma McLaughlin (72), Amanda McQuillan 73), Noelle Murray (112)
Sent off: Pearl Slattery (71).

Referee: Oliver Moran. 
Attendance: 342
extratime.com Player of the Match: Ella Kelly (Shamrock Rovers)