Shels’ Slattery: We won’t slip up again
AS everything is settled at both ends of the Premier Division table, the final day of League of Ireland action is likely to be drama-free, so it won’t take too much attention away from the FAI Women’s Cup final. Still, the circumstances have been disappointing for Shelbourne.
In Tolka Park these days, the women’s and men’s teams are the two sides of one coin. And Shels could have hoped for even greater support in Tallaght if Damien Duff’s side didn’t have a game later this evening.
‘The most disappointing thing for us is that the men’s team can’t go to the game,’ Shels skipper Pearl Slattery admitted. ‘I work in the FAI, I know (league director) Mark Scanlon did everything for that to happen. I sat in a room for an hour and he explained everything.
‘They genuinely tried to avoid it but couldn’t. It’s disappointing for us that the men’s team is playing too, but I think we will still get good support.’
Slattery (above) has now played over 150 times for Shelbourne, having also played for Raheny United before they were subsumed by the Reds.
Claiming a league and cup double is one of the final things on the to-do list for the veteran.
Last year, the emotion of claiming the league title in such dramatic circumstances drained the team, while the celebrations tired them out before they faced Wexford in the Cup final.
Slattery insists there will be no such slip-ups this afternoon.
‘I think last year we were just exhausted from the whole build-up to the final day. But we wouldn’t change a thing.
‘The league is No.1, it is what you want to win. Obviously, now with the league in the bag – and we are back-to-back champions – we definitely want to put in a better performance and get that double.’
Athlone are coming into this final in a rich vein of form themselves, having won their last six games, and they haven’t conceded a goal on their way to this afternoon’s decider. They have been defensively solid all season with Jessica Hennsessy, who has been called up to Vera Pauw’s home-based sessions, a revelation at centre-half. In Muireann Devaney and Maddison Gibson, who scored a hat-trick in their semi-final win over Wexford, they have players with match-winning ability.
Shelbourne are much more seasoned. After their mid-season dip, when they lost Chloe Mustaki, Jess Ziu and Saoirse Noonan to clubs in England, Noel King’s side got their season back on track and the impressive way they brushed Wexford aside in Ferrycarrig last weekend illustrates a team on a mission.
In the likes of Slattery and Rachel Graham, they have players who have been there and done it when it has come to the big day, while the likes of Abbie Larkin is also a potential match-winner.
It all adds up to quite the occasion at Tallaght Stadium. Those Shelbourne supporters who decide to go to Richmond Park instead might miss out on a thrilling encounter.