Dearbhaile Beirne: "We will put the big Cork support to the back of our minds"

Speaking to extratime.ie ahead of Sunday’s Women’s FAI Cup Final at the Aviva Stadium, UCD Waves star Dearbhaile Beirne spoke of her excitement heading into the clash against Cork City Women at 12 noon.

Beirne has made no secret of her excitement ahead of the Cup Final and is looking forward to the occasion.

“It’s very exciting now to get stuck in to the final in the Aviva. It’s a big occasion and obviously I think it’s going to be a great game between ourselves and Cork and we’ve both had to work very hard to get there!”

Beirne, while speaking about the added audience watching the game, has said that it will naturally add to the nerves but knows that it will be a great experience playing in front of such a large audience.

“Usually at our National League games we wouldn’t have a big crowd or audience, but you know Sunday is going to be huge. The game is filmed live on RTE and then there’ll hopefully be a good crowd in support coming up from UCD and Cork so that’ll add to it a lot.

“Obviously, it adds the nerves to the game as well as most of the girls wouldn’t be used to playing in front of a big crowd, but I think it’s something we can build on and it’ll be great playing at the Aviva.” 

Having beaten Cork City on three occasions so far this season, Beirne is under no illusions that her teammates will be in for a challenging game during Sunday’s showdown at the Aviva.

“I don’t think for ourselves anyway, we can’t read into any of the results we’ve got against Cork this year because going into a final is a whole different ball game. They’re going to be so up for the game and their men’s team is playing later on in the day so they’re going to have a huge support up in the Aviva and that’s going to play a lot into their hands, so we have to be very cautious and we must respect them as a team like they are going to respect us.”

Beirne knows the vocal backing from Leeside will play a major role in the game and said that the UCD Waves team will have to put that to the back of their minds.

“The support from Cork will be a big factor in the game and obviously the Aviva Stadium is huge. If they have a good corner or even a good half, the crowd will support them and that will be a big thing for them so we’re going to have to try to put that to the back of our minds!”

The Women’s FAI Cup Final will take place Sunday in the Aviva Stadium at 12 noon as part of a double header of Cup Finals at the south Dublin venue. The Women’s and Men’s games will be aired live on RTE 2 with coverage kicking off at the 11.30 AM. Extratime.ie will have live updates, reports, and photos from both games.