WNL Preview: Castlebar Celtic v Galway WFC

• Extratime Team
• Sat, Jan 17 2015




CONTINENTAL Tyres Women’s National League football resumes in Celtic Park this evening with an exciting Connacht derby in store as Castlebar Celtic host Galway WFC.

 

These sides played out a 4-3 thriller in October and Celtic will be looking to come out on top once again against their neighbours.

 

Coach Adrian Carberry said: “It’s a derby game with both sides competing for the three points from the first whistle and I expect each side will have to earn the right to play their football.

 

“We’re looking to build on the form we finished off the year with but we saw Galway’s draw against Wexford Youths and you can see they are a very strong side with the likes of Meabh de Burca and Ruth Fahy standing out.

 

“It’s the first game for us since mid-December so we’re glad to be back into it. A lot of our players travel a long way to play for us so our training has been hampered a bit by the weather but we’re all set for tomorrow.

 

“We’ll have a few headaches picking the team. Katie Walsh has returned to us and Meadhbh Kennelly has also signed.”

 

Galway WFC boss Don O’Riordan has to plan without long-term absentee Karla Mullins while Marie Curtin is suspended.

 

“I was happy with how we played against Wexford last time out. We wanted to show the league we were better than our previous result against Wexford had suggested,” said O’Riordan.

 

“We had done well going ahead against Raheny the game before that but lost late on. We learned a lot from playing against a side like that which kept it up right until the end of the game. We have to learn how to protect leads when we do go ahead.

 

“This is a local derby and we won’t need too much to motivate the girls. The last time we played Castlebar we didn’t start at all and went 3-0 down before ending up at 4-3. I know a bit more about them now so I feel we can give a good account of ourselves.”