By Conall Collier
The attention this weekend for Sligo Rovers will switch to a second round game in the Women’s All-Island Cup with a trip to Belfast on the radar for Saturday to tackle Linfield Ladies at Midgley Park, 2pm.
There will be an international break the following weekend and the third round of the All-Island Cup will complete the qualifying action on Saturday 7th June when the Bit O’Red will host Shelbourne.
Steve Feeney’s side will travel to Belfast on Saturday with live quarter-final qualification prospects following a home 1-1 draw against Bohemian FC at the end of April on the same day that Linfield slumped to a heavy defeat in Dublin against Shelbourne.
That 5-1 victory for Shelbourne has the Dublin side sitting at the top of Group A ahead of a visit to Dalymount Park on Saturday to play Bohs.
Rovers will be eager to keep a fourth cleansheet of the season following last Saturday’s reversal against Women’s Premier Division champions Athlone Town and a victory in Belfast would put the Bit O’Red in a strong position to claim a place in the last eight.
STEVE FEENEY
Manager Steve Feeney is looking forward to the challenge of tackling a quality team like Linfield and he feels that his players are more than capable of getting the victory in Belfast.
“Linfield are a good team and they have some players in the Northern Ireland squad, that’s the kind of quality they have,and they also have some former Sligo Rovers players, Zoe McGlynn and Keri Loughrey,” commented Steve.
“It will be a big challenge for us, but it’s good to play a team from outside our own league and everyone is looking forward to it.
“We still have a lengthy injury list, but we have been dealing with that for the past few weeks and we will be looking for a positive performance and a positive result.
“If we can get the win on Saturday it will set us up nicely for the final group game a fortnight later against Shelbourne at the Showgrounds.
“It’s as simple as that, we have to try to get the win and then see what way the other game (Bohs v Shelbourne) goes, but Linfield will be looking at it the same way.
“They (Linfield) lost to Shelbourne, but a lot of teams will lose to Shelbourne this season, we won’t read too much into that result and we will do our homework and be ready for the challenge.
“Hopefully, we will deliver a solid performance, similar to some of recent displays, if we can do that, then we will have a good chance,” he concluded.
LINFIELD
Linfield’s season kicked-off in mid-April with a couple of outings in the Women’s League Cup that produced a 4-1 win against Lisburn and a 2-3 loss to Cliftonville ahead of that trip to Tolka Park for the All-Island Cup against Shelbourne which the Dublin side won by 5-1.
Since then, Linfield defeated Derry City 9-0 in the League Cup and have now played twice in the NIFL Premiership – a 1-1 draw with Cliftonville, goal from Cora Chambers, and a 2-1 win against Crusaders with Alex Clarke and Cora Chambers on the scoreboard.
There is a Sligo Rovers theme at Linfield with former players Zoe McGlynn and Keri Loughrey featuring regularly for the Belfast side and the duo played in that defeat at Tolka Park.
Linfield started well in that game with a lead goal on 38 minutes from Alex Clarke, but the hosts responded positively and were ahead by 2-1 at the interval, before adding three more goals in the second-half.
Linfield manager Ryan McConville took positives out of the performance and will now be looking to pick up maximum points on Saturday.
“Shelbourne are a very good side and our players worked very hard, we were well in the game for 60 minutes,” he said.
“We have a competitive squad and they can achieve whatever they want to, but it’s down to them, we have retained most of our squad and it’s up to me to try to bring the best out of our players,” he added.
Linfield players in the Northern Ireland squad include Abi Sweetlove and Keri Halliday.
LOITV
Linfield v Sligo Rovers will kick-off at 2pm on Saturday, live on LOITV.