Despite sitting at the foot of the Women’s Premier Division (WPD) after four outings, Sligo Rovers can adopt a positive attitude towards Saturday’s trip to Dublin to tackle DLR Waves at The UCD Bowl, 4pm, writes Conall Collier.

Although the Bit O’Red failed to pick up any points in March, there was a boost for the team when Sarah Kiernan took the League of Ireland goal of the month award for her super strike at Ferrycarrig Park against Wexford.

There was also an encouraging display on the opening day of the season against Shamrock Rovers where an injury-time goal from Republic of Ireland player Áine O’Gorman secured a 92nd minute victory for the Dublin side.

Manager Steve Feeney will welcome back Jodie Loughrey and Alice Lillie who were both on Republic of Ireland duty over the last couple of weeks while Emma Doherty was also kept busy during the international break

Doherty featured for the Republic of Ireland 19s in UEFA qualifying games against Germany, Norway and Croatia.

She was captain of the team and scored in the 4-1 victory against Croatia while Loughrey and Lillie were in the panel for the UEFA 17s qualifiers in France where the Irish women lost to hosts France, but enjoyed wins against Italy and Kosovo.

Last time out in the WPD Sligo Rovers took the lead against Treaty Utd with Doherty showing her predatory instincts with an opportunist goal, but the Limerick side struck two second-half goals to secure a hard-earned victory.

DLR Waves also slumped to a disappointing defeat last time out as Bohemian FC picked up their first win at Dalymount this season with a 3-0 midweek victory against Graham Kelly’s side at the end of March on a night when Sligo Rovers was the idle team.

DLR Waves also finished with 10 players on that occasion as Isobel Finnegan was shown a red card five minutes before the break.

Both teams will be aiming to get back on the winning track at Belfield this weekend and that could produce an action-packed encounter with plenty of goal-scoring opportunities at each end of the pitch.


LAST TIME OUT

Sligo Rovers 1, Treaty Utd 2

Bohemian FC 3, DLR Waves 0