Castlebar Celtic -v- Shamrock Rovers
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Castlebar Celtic and Shamrock Rovers go head to head at Celtic Park on Sunday with both sides looking to end their recent run of poor results in the Bus Éireann Women’s National League.
Celtic suffered a painful 8-1 loss to Peamount United last weekend while the Hoops were beaten 3-0 by Cork Women’s FC in their most recent fixture and 5-1 to the Peas the previous week.
“The scoreline last week doesn’t make pleasant reading but I don’t feel we were actually seven goals worse than Peamount on the day,” said Castlebar coach John Morris-Burke.
“We had enough chances to go in 3-3 at the break not 3-1 down but we didn’t take them and when you pass up opportunities against a quality side like Peamount you will be badly punished.
“I was disappointed for the girls and they were sore about the defeat but there’s no point in being crestfallen. We have a chance to put things right this weekend and that’s what we’ll be aiming to do.”
Castlebar are without Emma Hansberry who has flown out to play in the Cyprus Cup for the senior international women’s team while Shauna Jackson and Sarah Rowe report back after U19 international duty. Goalkeeper Emma Concannon is a doubt.
Rovers plan without Lisa Murphy (ankle) while Rebecca Carroll is on U17 international duty.
“We have been disappointed with the soft goals we’ve conceded recently and the poor start we’ve made in games. We need to rectify that and give ourselves a better chance of establishing a foothold in games,” said Rovers coach Stephen Craig.
“The frustrating thing is that we’ve trained well but we’re not carrying into games. Perhaps our players are intimidated by playing against senior internationals but they have to learn to cope with that.”
