Credit: Extratime Team (ETPhotos)
WNL Preview: Castlebar Celtic v Raheny United
- Extratime Team
- Sat, Nov 08 2014
CASTLEBAR Celtic host Raheny United looking to build on their impressive 5-1 victory over Cork City Women's FC last weekend while the Pandas travel west buoyed by their FAI Continental Tyres Women's Senior Cup success against UCD Waves.
Champions Raheny will be seeking to turn their minds back to the more routine matters of a tough away league game after all the excitement of clinching a third cup in a row at Aviva Stadium last Sunday.
Aoife Herbert is a doubt for Celtic with flu and Orla Devaney is expected to be fit but Adrian Carberry’s side are determined to give the country’s marquee side a real test.
“We have to congratulate Raheny on winning the cup once more. They well deserved their win and looked comfortable. They’ve really set out their stall to take Irish women’s football to the next level with their UEFA performances this year,” said Carberry.
“We’ll be looking to give them a real challenge. We need to pick up points to stay in touch with the leaders. Raheny showed in the final that they can sit in and soak up pressure and have a lot of attacking quality. There’s no better test for our girls than facing the best. There are areas where we very good too so we’ll look to capitalise on that.”
United boss Casey McQuillan continues to operate without Clare Shine but is focusing his side on their bread and butter work of the league now.
“You have to be happy with the result last Sunday. I was particularly happy that a few high profile people had tipped UCD and we went and won anyway,” he said.
“We were disciplined enough. Free flowing football wasn’t going to be on the agenda as the two sides were so evenly matched. That said, it was high tempo stuff and we probably just shaded it on the day even if the winner was a bit fortunate.
“Playing Castlebar is tough at the best of times. We did object to play on Saturday but we’ll get on with it. I saw them against UCD and felt they were better than the result on the day. They’re starting to pick up results now and have a wily campaigner in Adrian Carberry as manager so we know it’ll be difficult.”
