McDermott confident ahead of Peas clash

Peamount United may have won the last meeting between the two sides, but Raheny United manager Ger McDermott believes that his side can trump their rivals on Sunday and in the process take a big step towards winning the first Women's National League title. 

It took extra-time to separate the Dublin rivals in the League Cup semi-final, and many expect tomorrow's clash to be a close-run affair. Peamount and Raheny have been duelling all season long for first spot, and McDermott agrees that tomorrow is probably the biggest game of the year for the northsiders. 

"From our point of view, we still have to play the two games afterwards [against Wexford and Castlebar]," he said, "but obviously tomorrow represents the chance to go five points clear at the top." 

Although it's not quite do-or-die (either side could still win the league even if they lose tomorrow), that hasn't stopped this match being billed as 'the biggest game in women's football.' Whilst there are still two matches left after tomorrow, McDermott agrees that tomorrow is the biggest match of the year.

"It's a big match," he says, "because it's not only the first Women's National League but it's also about Champions League qualification. We'd like to emulate the success Peamount had last year."

"It would be tough [to lose the league] because we have our players in three times a week for training and then in again for a match at the weekend, without even expenses. It'd be nice to have that reward, it'd be hard to pick them up from it [if Raheny lost the league]." 

Peamount have scored 55 goals so far in the league, but in their meetings with Raheny in the league they haven't been quite as red-hot so far. The last time they played in Morton Stadium, back in round three, Raheny stunned Peas 4-1 with braces from Ciara Grant and Siobhan Killeen.

In early February, United visited Greenogue for the first time this season and were again victorious with goals from Seana Cooke and Siobhan Killeen giving them a precious win. But how do Raheny manage to contain a side like Peamount which regularly blitzes other opponents by six or seven goals?

"To be honest, they play a very direct game," says McDermott. "They have very good players in attacking areas and they like to get it to them quickly. So we know from the last few times we played them that there's no pressing them high up the pitch so I told the girls to sit back and stay compact. We got it right at the back first."

Sunday the plan remains the same- to stop Peamount from getting the most out of free-scoring players like Stephanie Roche and Sara Lawlor. But McDermott's side is not without its own attacking outlets, it's just that they are less concentrated- Rebecca Creagh and Siobhan Killeen are both on seven goals each, while Katie McCabe has five.

This, McDermott says, will give Raheny a "huge advantage" on Sunday. "Having the attackers that we have in our squad allow us to concentrate on defending properly." 

The fact that Peamount won the last time they met doesn't really enter into Raheny's preparation, according to McDermott. "In their [Peamount's] mind, maybe they know now that they can beat us. But we changed the whole squad and system for that match and it was a couple of individual errors that cost us in the end. We wouldn't be too down about it."

Extratime.ie will have full Live Updates for this game, be sure and tune in!