Shelbourne 2 Athlone Town 0
Jessie Stapleton and Pearl Slattery bagged the crucial goals at Tallaght Stadium yesterday afternoon as Shelbourne completed the double with victory over Athlone in the FAI Women’s Cup final.
Playing in front of a record crowd of 5,073 for a game of this magnitude, Shels held the decisive edge to add to the Women’s National League crown they successfully defended just seven days earlier with a 4-0 triumph at the expense of Wexford Youths.
Having lost out to Wexford in the 2021 cup decider, Noel King’s Dubliners were able to go a step further this year and will remain the team to beat when the domestic action kick-starts again in 2023.
First-team finalists Athlone were hoping to get one over on Shels after the Reds pipped them to the WNL title on the previous weekend, but they found themselves chasing the game almost immediately.
There was just under five minutes on the clock when Shels were awarded an attacking free-kick out on the left flank. Alex Kavanagh unleashed an enticing delivery into the penalty area and when Athlone netminder Niamh Coombes couldn’t collect the ball cleanly, it rebounded off Stapleton’s back before finding the net.
Although there was a large element of fortune to this opener, this is exactly the kind of start Shels were looking for in their latest quest for silverware in the women’s game. Their goalkeeper Amanda Budden – a cup winner with her hometown club of Cork City in 2017 – did pull off a save from Emily Corbet in the 13th-minute, but the Reds ultimately doubled their lead on the first-quarter mark.
After her central defensive partner Shauna Fox nodded on a Megan Smyth-Lynch corner on the right-wing, Shels captain Slattery was on hand to head home from a couple of inches out.
This left Athlone in an ominous position with the majority of the game still to play and despite the best endeavours of team skipper Laurie Ryan in the middle of the park, they were struggling to break through a stern opposition rearguard.
While Corbet was ready to pounce off a pinpoint cross in the latter stages of the half, Shels left-back Leah Doyle executed a superb interception to keep her side 2-0 in front at the break.
Already firmly in the driving seat, the Reds were perilously close to extending their lead four minutes after the restart as Keeva Keenan’s delivery from the right crashed off the crossbar before eventually drifting away to safety.
To their credit, Athlone did persist with their challenge and Madison Gibson (the hat-trick hero in that last-four success over Wexford) was growing into the contest along with Roisin Molloy. Town boss Tommy Hewitt wasn’t afraid to make changes, however, and he introduced Kayleigh Shine, Kellie Brennan and Kate Slevin as a triple substitution on the hour.
His counterpart King had the luxury of bringing on the World Cup-winning former USA international Heather O’Reilly in the 72nd-minute, but this switch followed a big let-off for his charges. Athlone appeared to have found a way back into contention when Scarlett Herron headed in from close-range, but this effort was ruled out for offside – even though replays suggested she might have been level with the last defender.
This would have made matters interesting as the final whistle approached and Gibson also fired agonisingly over the woodwork from a Brennan pullback as Athlone fought until the bitter end.
Yet those early goals had offered Shels a powerful platform and it was enough to confirm their domestic dominance for 2022.
SHELBOURNE: Budden; Gargan, Slattery, Fox, Doyle; Kavanagh (Starr, 92 mins), Stapleton; Keenan (Graham, 77 mins), Larkin, Smyth-Lynch (O’Reilly 72); Murray (Quinn, 92 mins).
ATHLONE TOWN: Coombes; O’Kane, Hennessy, Munroe (Shine, 60 mins); Molloy (Daly, 89 mins), Ryan, Devaney, Herron (Grant, 92 mins), Gibson; Keenan (Slevin, 60 mins), Corbet (Brennan, 60 mins).
Referee: Sean Grant (Wexford).
