Galway took the Women’s National League points at The Showgrounds on Saturday afternoon with a narrow 2-1 victory against hosts Sligo Rovers writes Conall Collier.

Due to an injury to Rovers’ keeper Kristen Sample in the second-half, there was nine minutes added time at the end. Unfortunately for Rovers and Sample, the American sustained a broken arm and will be out of action for a long period.

Rovers enjoyed a good opening spell and there was a great tussle between Lauren Boles for the hosts and Galway’s Julie Ann Russell, a sister of Men’s Assistant Manager John, throughout.

Galway forced two early corners, but Rovers settled into the game and
created a number of good chances without seriously troubling Abbiegayle Ronayne between the posts.

However, there was a scare for the hosts in the 10th minute when Sample had to divert a deflected free out for a corner with a smart save.

Galway continued to press and Sample was in action again in the 14th minute when Emma Starr broke through, but her shot was saved.

Rovers found a perfect response to that let-off when Emma Doherty beat the out-rushing Ronayne in a race for possession and then slotted to the empty net from the edge of the penalty area.

Leah Kelly created the chance with a great piece of individual skill and a good ball out of defence.

Galway reacted positively and upped the tempo and had a couple of efforts narrowly off target before Becky Walsh glanced a 39th minute header off the foot of the post.

The post saved the hosts again soon after when Jenna Slattery was denied and the same player fluffed a couple of better chances on the stroke of half-time.

In added time Walsh headed an equaliser for Galway and they added a second goal on the hour as they resumed the second-half smartly with Shauna Brennan finishing to the net.

Bit O’Red ‘keeper Kristen Sample sustained her injury in her efforts to save the Galway effort and she was replaced by Amy Mahon who was in action fairly quickly as she saved well from Jenna Slattery in the 70th minute after Galway had a goal ruled out for offside.

Russell had a fine effort for Galway that skimmed the top of the crossbar in added time and she also hit the post while the Bit O’Red had long-range efforts from Gemma McGuinness and Sarah Kiernan.

Sligo Rovers – Kristen Sample; Leah Kelly, Orna O’Dowd, Gemma McGuinness, Lauren Boles, Emma Doherty, Aoife Brennan, Amy Roddy, Kerri O’Hara, Paula McGrory, Sarah Kiernan. Subs –
Fiona Doherty for Brennan 56 mins, Amy Mahon for Sample 60 mins, Helen Monaghan for O’Hara and Katie Melly for Kelly both 70 mins,


Galway WFC – Abbiegayle Ronayne; Becky Walsh, Emma Starr, Shauna Brennan, Chloe Singleton, Julie Ann Russell, Jenna Slattery, Lynsey McKee, Therese Kinnevey, Jamie Erickson, Kate Thompson. Subs – Lauryn Gamache for Slattery 83 mins, Aoife Thompson for McKee and Taylor Rutland Singleton both 89 mins, Nicole McNamara for Thompson 97 mins.

Referee – Sean Stephens.

Bit O’ Red took on Shelbourne on Friday night at Tolka Park in what was the second meeting between the sides this season.

Damien Duff’s Shels defeated Rovers 1-0 at The Showgrounds on April 1st thanks to a Dan Carr penalty.

Liam Buckley made four changes to the side that drew with Shamrock Rovers in the previous game with Will Fitzgerald, Mark Byrne, Robbie McCourt and Paddy Kirk coming into the starting eleven in place of Colm Horgan, Shane Blaney, Jordan Hamilton and the suspended Garry Buckley.

Shelbourne started the better team and looked to create some chances early on but Rovers stood firm and the hosts could only force a couple of corners and one or two half chances which were blocked down by The Rovers’ defence.

On 23 minutes however they took the lead. Adam McDonnell was caught in possession on the edge of his own penalty area and midfielder Jack Moylan picked the ball up and curled it high into the corner past Ed McGinty to give his side the lead.

Rovers had a couple of half chances through Aidan Keena and Fitzgerald soon after but the hosts doubled their lead on 43 minutes when striker Sean Boyd gathered possesion on the edge of the box and just like the first goal he placed it into the corner to give McGinty no chance.

Liam Buckley made two half time changes with Jordan Hamilton and the returning Max Mata coming on to replace Byrne and Fitzgerald.

The changes did give The Bit O’ Red some more urgency and more possession brought some half chances in front of goal with Mata and Hamilton causing problems for the Shels back five.

After the hour mark, Paddy Kirk beat two men and found himself inside the penalty area and his strike flew past Brendan Clarke into the top corner to bring Rovers back into the game.

The game opened up by now and both sides had chances, most notably when Sean Boyd found space in the box but his header was saved by McGinty. The striker got to the rebound first and somehow, McGinty denied him from close range to keep Rovers in it.

Buckley introduced Cillian Heaney, Colm Horgan and Seamas Keogh for the final fifteen minutes in place of Lewis Banks, Greg Bolger and Aidan Keena and had some sustained possession in the final third but couldn’t create a clear chance. Seamas Keogh found space on the left in added time but his cross, which found McDonnell was headed wide.

Next up is Shamrock Rovers on Monday at Tallaght Stadium.

This weekend sees five academy games take place starting off on Saturday afternoon.

Our Under 17 Women’s team host DLR Waves at 4.30pm at The Sean Fallon Centre following our Senior Women’s game on the main pitch at 2pm.

At 3.30pm in Ballisodare United’s ground our Under 17 Men’s team host Derry City. The sides met earlier in the year in Derry with the hosts running out 4-0 winners.

In Navan at 4pm, our Under 14 side face Drogheda United in a friendly. Earlier in the season, The Drogs visited ATU Sligo with Rovers winning 5-2 in an entertaining game.

Sunday sees both our Under 19 teams in action.

Our Under 19 Men’s side host Shelbourne at 2pm at The Sean Fallon Centre knowing that progress to the Elite Phase is already secured following last week’s scoreless draw in Dublin against Bohemians.

At 4.30pm in Letterkenny Darragh Healy and Scott Lynch take their side to face Donegal. The last time the sides met Rovers ran out 4-0 winners just three weeks ago.

Net World Sports have again teamed up with the club to become our Official Equipment Supplier for the 2022 season.

Net World Sports are a leading worldwide supplier of sports equipment. Providing top of the range equipment across sports such as football, GAA, golf, basketball and tennis; they have everything you need to get to the top of your game!

Sligo Rovers manager Liam Buckley spoke of his delight at the deal:

“Having worked with the company before, it’s important we know as a club we are getting good equipment to help us train better and improve on the pitch. The equipment we receive from Net World Sports is second to none and it benefits us in terms of training sessions and preparations throughout the season.

The deal will see the company supply The Bit O Red with FORZA training equipment for the duration of the 2022 season for both Senior and Academy teams.

Lois Jones, Partnership Executive at Net World Sports is equally as pleased with the partnership: “We’re thrilled to be supporting the club as the Official Equipment Supplier for the 2022 season. We look forward to working closely with the team at Sligo Rovers and hope our equipment will aid the players in what we’re sure will be a successful campaign”.

Check out the Net World Sports website at www.networldsports.ie

Sligo Rovers host Galway Women on Saturday afternoon at The Showgrounds in the first ever meeting between the sides at Women’s National League level.

Galway lie one place ahead of Rovers going into the game and a win for Steve Feeney’s side will see us leap-frog our Western neighbours.

Last week, Rovers lost 5-0 away to Athlone Town after three goals in the opening 11 minutes put paid to any chances of gaining points at Lissywoolen.

Galway come into the game on the back of 2-2 draw last weekend at home to Wexford Youths.

Manager Steve Feeney:

‘’This weekend we welcome Galway WFC to The Showgrounds. They are a side full of good players and with Alan Murphy as manager we know we will face a very tough test on Saturday. We are looking forward to the game and are all very keen to bounce back from a disappointing defeat last week. 

Athlone punished some mistakes we made last week and showed why they are a team who can take points off every team in the division. It’s important we learn from the game and try not to make any similar mistakes going forward. The players have turned up to training this week with a great attitude after that defeat and we have no doubt they are very keen to give a great performance in the showgrounds on Saturday.

Hopefully we will see another good turn out and everyone there gets behind the players as it makes such a difference to the team’’. 

In team news, Emma Hansberry is out injured and Keela Scanlon is unavailable.

The game kicks off at 2pm with our turnstiles opening from 1pm.

The game is live on LOI TV with commentary from Jessica Farry and Ronan Flanagan.

Our special guests from The Sligo/Leitrim league are Calry Bohs girls and we look forward to welcoming them and their coaches to the game.

The Bit O’ Red return to Dublin on Friday night to take on Shelbourne at Tolka Park. It will be the first of two games in three days in the capital as we face Shamrock Rovers away from home on Monday night.

Rovers come into the game unbeaten in our last three games following wins over Finn Harps and Drogheda United along with last Friday’s 1-1 draw with Shamrock Rovers at The Showgrounds.

Young attacker Cillian Heaney came on in the second half and was involved in the build up to Jordan Hamilton’s equaliser and manager Liam Buckley has praised the youth set up at the club:

‘’We have some terrific young talent here in The North-West. We have six teams here in our academy set up between the men’s and women’s side of it and it’s great to see such talent coming through to both senior teams. We have to be patient with all these guys, we can’t rush them into it. They’ll all continue to develop over time and it’s great when we can call on them and we see them doing well.

For a community owned club like ourselves, it’s important to produce our own and I feel like we have done that in recent years. In my own time we’ve had a high number of academy lads coming through and playing regularly for us, probably too many to mention, so that’s a great sign.

Buckley also reflects on the season so far and looks ahead to tomorrow’s game:

‘’We were pleased with the performance last week against Shamrock Rovers. We will look to give it a good go again tomorrow night and we know we have another test again just three days later. It’s a busy schedule and the squad will be important. We are in fourth spot at the moment and there is a long way to go. We have some great young players here and we’ve had to add new players this season as well so it’s still a matter of gelling all of that together and come the end of the season we’d like to be in a strong position.

Shelbourne beat us at home only five weeks ago. They did well on the night and we probably under-performed. It was disappointing from our point of view but in this league all games are so tight and tomorrow will be no different.

In team news, Garry Buckley is suspended after being sent off last week against Shamrock Rovers. Max Mata is closer to a return and could feature and there are no other injury concerns for The Bit O’ Red.

Away supporters can buy tickets here: https://shelbournefc.ie/away-tickets-xbfcy/

The game is live on LOI TV and Commentary is on Ocean FM

Tomorrow at Sligo Rovers is Women’s Wednesday.

We will use our main social media accounts to help our supporters continue to get to know our Senior Women’s team players as we look forward to our upcoming game this weekend against Galway at The Showgrounds (2pm Saturday).

The team have had a very impressive debut season so far and with a strong pool of players coming through our academy we believe the club will only get better as we continue our journey at Women’s National League level.

Tomorrow we will let you know about our players and staff and how you can become involved in the Women’s game here at The Showgrounds to show your support.

Our Twitter, Facebook and Instagram pages will focus only on our Women’s teams throughout the day and we will have some articles on our website too.

Tickets for the big game are on sale now at https://srfcdirect.com/match-tickets/

The Bit O’ Red academy teams were in action again across the weekend with five games taking place from Saturday to Monday.

On Saturday afternoon in Cootehill, Cavan, Rovers took on Cavan/Monaghan and the game finished 2-2 with goals from Michael Clifford and Luke Mavrak earning a share of the points.

At the same time, Our Under 15’s suffered a narrow 1-0 defeat to neighbours Finn Harps in Drumoghill. Rovers did have chances to equalise and played some great football throughout the game but just couldn’t find that all important equaliser.

Sunday saw both Under 19 teams in action. At 2pm in Dublin, our men’s team faced Bohemians knowing a point would secure qualification to the Elite phase of the league. A tight game ended 0-0 with both sides having chances to get the three points but both settled for a draw and Rovers progress to the Elite Phase in a couple of weeks.

Our Under 19 Women’s team hosted Athlone Town at The Sean Fallon Centre and an entertaining game ended 2-2 with goals from Rebecca Doddy and Helen Monaghan securing another point for Rovers leaving the side on 14 points from a possible 24 and in third position.

Bank holiday Monday saw our Under 14 team travel to Shamrock Rovers for a friendly at 2.30pm. The lads suffered a comprehensive defeat but again will take a lot from the game.

Three goals in the opening 11 minutes set Athlone Town up for a third successive Women’s National League victory as they hosted Sligo Rovers for the first time on Saturday evening writes Conall Collier.

A first minute penalty, awarded for handball, was converted by Emily Corbett.

Kellie Brennan added a second for the Westmeath side in the ninth minute when she finished at the near post with a suspicion of handball, but it wasn’t picked up by the referee.

It got worse for the Bit O’Red when Corbett finished well to make it 3-0 just a minute later.

Athlone Town, playing in the WNL for a third season and with a player of the quality of Gillian Keenan, the Westmeath side came into this game on the back of wins against Treaty United last Saturday and DLR Waves last Tuesday evening, both away from home. They also defeated Galway in March.

Rovers recovered from that early setback and in the 30th minute Emma Doherty’s free kick was scrambled to safety by Athlone ‘keeper Niamh Coombes while at the other end Kristen Sample saved well from Gillian Keenan and Kelsey Munroe.

The Bit O’ Red created the first chance after the resumption when Emma Doherty’s well-struck shot was saved by Coombes in the 55th minute, but soon after Athlone found the net at the other end when Corbett completed her hat-trick.

And it got better for Athlone in the 70th minute when Corbett claimed her fourth goal, another penalty, to make it 5-0.

No joy for the Bit O’Red on this occasion despite a battling and gutsy performance and they will complete the first round of games at home to Galway next Saturday at 2pm at The Showgrounds.

Athlone Town – Niamh Coombes, Fiona Owens, Kayleigh Shine, Jessica Hennessey, Muireann Devaney, Gillian Keenan, Emily Corbett, Kellie Brennan, Laurie Ryan, Kelsey Munroe, Roisin Molloy. Subs – Melissa O’Kane for Shine 63 mins, Rita Lang for Corbett and Lucy Jane Grant for Brenna both 74 mins, Millie Daly for Molloy and Ciara O’Neill for Devaney both 85 mins

Sligo Rovers – Kristen Sample; Kerri O’Hara, Ruth Monaghan, Orna O’Dowd, Gemma McGuinness, Lauren Boles, Emma Doherty, Amy Roddy, Katie Melly, Paula McGrory, Sarah Kiernan. Subs – Leah Kelly for Monaghan and Ciara Henry for Melly both 60 mins, Amy Hyndman for O’Hara, Fiona Doherty for Kiernan and Aoife Brennan for E Doherty all 75 mins.

Friday night saw Sligo Rovers host Shamrock Rovers at The Showgrounds in front of just under 3,000 supporters on a perfect evening for football.

The visitors came into the game on a five game winning streak, with The Bit O’ Red having won their two previous games against Finn Harps and Drogheda United.

Liam Buckley made four changes to his Bit O’ Red starting eleven from the previous game against Drogheda United with Nando Pijnaker, Adam McDonnell, Lewis Banks and Jordan Hamilton coming into the side for Paddy Kirk, Niall Morahan, Will Fitzgerald and Mark Byrne.

The first twenty minutes or so were tight with both sides getting the ball down and trying to play through midfield and both defences standing firm denying any clear cut chances.

On 22 minutes however, the away side took the lead. Jack Byrne picked up possession in the final third and played a fine through ball to Ronan Finn down the right. Finn’s cross found Danny Mandriou who’s shot was saved by Edward McGinty who tipped it around the post and out for a corner. From the resulting set piece, Andy Lyons found space and time and he placed a header into the corner to give his side the lead.

The Bit O’ Red reacted well to this and forced a number of corners and half chances but couldn’t really test Alan Mannus in the Shamrock Rovers goal.

Garry Buckley was booked on the stroke of half time for a foul on Mandriou, a booking which would come back to haunt the defender later on.

In the second half, The Bit O’ Red went in search of an equaliser, with Aidan Keena coming closest around five minutes into the half. Shane Blanmey was forced off soon after and Robbie McCourt came on in place of him at left back.

The game became a little more free-flowing for the remaining thirty minutes with both sides playing good football and creating more space and opportunity in front of goal.

Liam Buckley brought on youngster Cillian Heaney in place of Keena on 66 minutes and immediately the Mayo man began to impress. He showed no fear up against an experienced Shamrock Rovers defence. His pressure forced Lee Grace into an error when his clearance dropped to Jordan Hamilton who couldn’t quite get his shot away.

The home support was in full voice at this stage and getting behind the team and moment later Rovers had their goal. Garry Buckley found Heaney on the right who took his time and found the on rushing David Cawley who took the ball into the area onto his left foot and floated a perfect cross to Hamilton who’s header found the bottom corner past Mannus to make it 1-1.

Both sides created some half chances after this with McCourt coming closest for Rovers with a left footed strike from just inside the area saved by Mannus.

In the 85th minute, Garry Buckley was shown his second yellow card for a foul on Richie Towell which gave the visitors a boost going into the closing stages. Liam Buckley immediately brought on extra cover with Paddy Kirk replacing Jordan Hamilton.

Five minutes of added time couldn’t bring a winner for either side and the points were shared for the second time this season.

Both clubs meet again on Monday May 9th at Tallaght Stadium in a game that was originally scheduled for July but brought forward due to European competition.

Rovers travel to Shelbourne on Friday night in their next fixture. The game starts at 7.45pm at Tolka Park.