Groups confirmed for U17 women’s league

AS preparations continue for the inaugural FAI Women’s National U17 League, Sligo Rovers have learned their fate with the groupings confirmed.

With the league scheduled to kick off on July 14th, the Bit O’Red girls have been grouped with Athlone Town, Donegal League, Galway Women, Peamount United and Shelbourne Ladies in Group A.

The teams will meet twice throughout the season, playing each other home and away.

The extended squad has been training in their base at IT Sligo since late April in anticipation of the season’s commencement in just two months.

The training squad includes a number of players with experience at international, provincial and emerging talent level from across the entire north-west region. Excitement is high amongst the camp for the upcoming challenge.

Regarding the opposition teams, Athlone Town and the Donegal League are also new arrivals to the Women’s National League.

They, too, are untested at this level. Galway have a track record of producing quality international players and they have taken part in the WNL since 2013/14.

Shelbourne (having merged with Raheny in 2015) and Peamount need no introduction to any casual followers of the women’s game as they currently sit at the top of the senior women’s league table. They have four of the previous seven league titles between them.

Group B will consist of Greystones AFC, Cork City, Limerick FC, Wexford Youths and UCD Waves.

The top two teams in each group after two rounds of games will qualify for the league semi-finals.

The Sligo Rovers’ U17’s Women’s team has received excellent support from the team’s main sponsor, David McConville Orthodontics, a local Sligo based company. They have been fully behind the project since the concept was originally suggested at the turn of the year.

They have committed to support the club for both the 2018 and 2019 season.

Marie Casserly, Chairperson of the Sligo Rovers Women’s committee said: “I’m really impressed with the high standard of play and the focus shown by the coaching staff, players and their parents.

“I would like to express my appreciation to the management committee of Sligo Rovers for all their support, our partners IT Sligo who are making their facilities available and particularly our main sponsors David McConville Orthodontics for their support to get us to this point.

“We are all looking forward to a great season of football ahead and can’t wait for the games to start.”