Credit:
Shamrock Rovers v Raheny United
- Extratime Team
- Sun, Apr 27 2014
RAHENY United will retain their title if they can secure a point from their trip to the AUL Complex this Sunday but a combination of injuries and suspensions means the Pandas will have their resources fully stretched.
Head coach Casey McQuillan will operate without suspended Noelle Murray and Siobhan Killeen while Kerri Ryan, Katie McCabe and Clare Shine are long term absentees. Clare Conlon is a doubt and Leanne Payne is also unavailable.
“We’ll get through it. It’s not the first time we’ve been in this position. That’s what the squad is about, I’ve emphasised that since I’ve been there. It takes a squad to win the league,” said McQuillan.
“If you go on their season it’s the worst time to play Rovers. The Dublin games always have a bit of added spice. We’ll be expecting a tough encounter.
“Wednesday’s draw with Castlebar had a lot of passion in it but there was nothing filthy in it. We had a goal controversially disallowed but I view it that these things even themselves up over the season.
“The aim is still the same. We’d have been happy enough with a draw in Castlebar under the circumstances of where we are injury-wise anyway so hopefully we can go out now and finish the season with the right result to win the title.”
Hoops boss Stephen Craig is pleased with how his side has ended the campaign but is disappointed that former Raheny player Kate McKeever will miss out on a chance to face her former side through ankle ligament damage.
“Hopefully we’ll put in a good performance. If our girls all turn up with the same mentality as we have in the last few weeks we’ll give them a battle but you just don’t know. Three or four weeks ago we set ourselves a target and we’ve already surpassed that. If we get anything from Sunday it’ll be a bonus,” said Craig.
“We’re trying to do things right at Rovers and everybody can see we’ve improved. It’s just a shame we started five or six weeks after the rest at the beginning of the campaign. We’ve brought in players like Joan Daly who wasn’t playing for Raheny who’ve come in and worked hard for Shamrock Rovers and have improved as players. We’ll try and add quality if we can and the best way to do that is to get results. We have to show everybody that we have improved.”
