WNL Preview: Cork City Women -v- Peamount United

CORK CITY WOMEN

Cork City's first home game of the season sees the visit of high-flying Peamount United, who top the league with six points after two rounds of fixtures.

 

City, by contrast, have only played once after receiving a bye in round two, but they opened with an impressive away draw with the champions Shelbourne.

 

The Rebel Army led from the eighth minute through Saoirse Noonan's long-range effort, only to succumb to Jamie Finn's equaliser in the second minute of injury time.

 

With the international break last week, City played Galway WFC in the WNL Shield quarter-final two weeks and led 3-0 only to eventually fall to a disappointing 5-3 defeat.

 

“We had a very good preseason which began in the middle of January and obviously the first game in the league against Shelbourne LFC away was a very good result for us,” manager Frank Kelleher told the club's website.



 

“We played very very well up in the Morton Stadium and deserved the draw, probably should have won it, but conceded a late goal and were doing very well.

 

“We’ve trained very well for the last couple of weeks looking forward to the Peamount game. We needed to get the Galway game out of our system.

 

“We spoke to the players individually and collectively we looked at the analysis of it and we’ve corrected a lot of what went wrong in that game so we’re pretty confident that we’ll get a very good performance.”



 

Kate O'Donovan will miss Saturday's game with injury but Kelleher otherwise has a full squad to choose from.

 

 

PEAMOUNT UNITED

Peamount United enter round three with a share of top spot after winning both of their opening fixtures.

 

After comfortably overcoming Kilkenny United 4-1 away from home, they drew 2-2 with champions Shelbourne at Greenogue.

 

That result was later overturned, however, as Shelbourne were found to have fielded an ineligible player and the Peas were awarded a 3-0 walkover.

 

That results leaves top of the table on goals scored from UCD Waves, who also have a +6 goal difference with one fewer scored.

 

With UCD facing a tough trip to Morton Stadium to play Shelbourne later on Saturday night, this is a chance for Peamount to take the outright lead.

 

 

Referee:

 

 

MATCH STATS

The teams met twice in the 2016 season with identical results: Peamount triumphed 3-1 both home and away.

 

 

BETTING

N/A

 

PREDICTION

Cork City 1 – 3 Peamount United

 

 

Cork City Women

Injured: Kate O'Donovan.

Doubtful: None.

Suspended: None.

 

Peamount United

Injured: Unavailable.

Doubtful: Unavailable.

Suspended: None.