Castlebar Celtic 1 - 3 Shamrock Rovers

Shamrock Rovers ladies team booked their place in the Women's National League Cup final with a solid victory over a stubborn Castlebar Celtic side in Castlebar on Sunday afternoon. Rovers will go on to face the formidable Peamount United in the final of the competition.

The opening quarter of the game was largely quiet, with chances coming few and far between. The home side started in a more comfortable fashion and they looked like they could break the deadlock in the first twenty minutes. Aileen Gilroy was Celtics liveliest player throughout the afternoon and she created a good opportunity for Emma Hansberry by evading two Rovers defenders and whipping a ball into the box that found Hansberry, but she blazed her effort over the bar. Emma Mullin was also looking dangerous for the hosts and she was gifted a great chance to break the deadlock when Rachel King clipped a through ball over the defence for Mullin to latch onto, and the striker hit the target but failed to really trouble Sarah Devlin in the Rovers goal.

Rovers came within inches of snatching the lead on the half hour mark when a neat move culminated in Noelle Murray striking a looping shot towards the top corner, but Celtic net minder Ashling Concannon tipped her effort onto the crossbar superbly and Rachel Jenkins fluffed her rebound effort across the face of goal.

Devlin was in superb form for the visitors and she was again the thorn in Emma Mullin’s side when she parried superbly from the strikers close range effort, after King was instrumental in the build up to the opportunity. Aileen Gilroy was to the fore again before the interval, when she showed superb speed and skill to barrel down the wing before cutting inside on her right boot, but her attempt to curl the ball into the top corner failed to match the build up, and it went straight into Devlin's arms.

Rovers took the lead at an important time in the match as they were awarded a penalty on the stroke of half time, which Noelle Murray coolly dispatched into the bottom corner.

The second half started as the first finished, with Rovers on the front foot. They doubled their advantage with just three minutes played in the half when Aoife Maloney capitalised on a brilliant passage of play by Rovers.

Emma Mullin and Sarah Devlin continued their personal battle in the second period and Devlin superbly foiled another Mullin’s effort when she dived down low to parry the ball away from the bottom corner. When Mullin eventually did beat Devlin she found the woodwork in the way. The forward attempted a cross into the box but the ball headed towards goal cannoned of the crossbar.

The Mayo side also had a superb shot stopper in the form of Concannon. She made the save of the match when she got across her goal quickly to clear Grainne Walsh’s rebound shot off the line following Rachel Jenkins effort that hit the underside of the crossbar.

Jenkins was heavily involved in the Tallaght side’s third goal as she provided the run down the left flank and knocked in a superb cross to substitute Atenea Nunez who emphatically smashed the whipped cross home. But Celtic weren’t to be denied the goal that their efforts deserved and they were awarded a penalty when Mullin was bundled over by Carol Conlon in the area. Grainne Barrett stepped up to take the spot kick and her shot bounced back off the bar. But the linesman ordered a re-take, stating that Devlin advanced off her line before the kick was taken. Mullin took the re-take and dispatched it with composure to finally beat Devlin.

Celtic’s best performers on the day were Aileen Gilroy, Ashling Concannon and Emma Mullin, while Rachel Jenkins, Noelle Murray and Sarah Devlin put in fine performances for the Tallaght side.