WNL Preview: Wexford Youths Women's AFC v UCD Waves

• Extratime Team
• Sun, Jan 18 2015




THIS game has all the ingredients of a really intriguing tie as second-placed Wexford host third-placed UCD Waves.

 

Youths won 1-0 when the sides met in Dublin earlier in the season and remain two points ahead of Waves with a game less under their belts.

 

Wexford boss Willie Doyle has a number of injury concerns with the returning Rianna Jarrett – who was in college in the US – suffering a knee injury on international duty this week.

 

“Rianna could be out for a month unfortunately and we have a lot of games in that time so that’s not ideal. Jess Gleeson is still struggling with an ankle injury. Becky Hayden, Nicky Dunphy, Orla Hickey, Jenny Clifford and others are also injured. Lucy Sherwin has also moved on so we’ll have the strength of our squad tested,” said Doyle.

 

“We haven’t done as much as we would have preferred since Christmas for a number of reasons. We’re hoping the others are in the same boat as us with six weeks since the last game. It’s hard for anybody to have an advantage. It’s been a case of almost doing a pre-season again.

 

“Obviously UCD are looking this as a must-win to keep in the title race whereas we need to keep in touch with Raheny too. This will be a rude awakening for some of the girls but it’s not a must-win for us.”

 

UCD Waves have signed former Peamount player Rosie Maguire while Canadian midfielder Kyla Kellerman has come on board while Catherine Cronin is moving to Eileen Gleeson’s squad from Raheny United.

 

“The squad was tight numbers wise and we were looking to add players with Seana Cooke going and Chloe Mustaki being injured but we’re happy with the new signings,” said Gleeson.

 

“We’re looking forward to getting back into league action. We know they are a very strong team. It’ll be two very strong. It’s a key fixture at this stage. It’s all about the points now and we can’t afford to drop any