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Raheny United v DLR Waves
- Extratime Team
- Sun, Aug 25 2013
Champions Raheny United face fast-improving DLR Waves in a testing opening fixture in defence of their league title. The Northside Dublin outfit have just completed a tough week in the UEFA Women’s Champions League qualifying round so will be as sharp as any side in the country.
United have undergone significant managerial change in recent times. Sean Byrne stood down at the end of last term while Casey McQuillan took temporary charge ahead of the UEFA games before Terry Eviston takes the helm from next week onwards. Ex-Shamrock Rovers boss John Walsh is now part of the Raheny managerial ticket.
“This will be a tough start for us but we’ve been very pleased with how sharp everybody has looked in training. The girls have six big games under their belt with the UEFA matches and the Carrickfergus Cup prior to that,” said Walsh.
“DLR Waves proved last season that they can be as difficult an opponent as you’ll face in this league so we’ll be expecting a difficult test.”
Raheny are without Ciara Grant, Catherine Cronin and Grace McAuley while Pearl Slattery (quad) and Caroline Thorpe (foot) are doubts. DLR are without long term absentee Carla Moran while Alison Brien (foot) is also out.
“It’s another tough first game for us but we’re a better team now than we were 12 months ago. The season proved that our games against Raheny after the first game were very close. We’ve had an excellent pre-season and have added ten strong players to our squad so I feel we’ll be more competitive this season,” said DLR boss Larry Mahony.
