Oct 20,2024
SUNDAY, 20 OCTOBER
2024 Sports Direct FAI Cup final
Athlone Town v Shelbourne, Tallaght Stadium, 3pm.
TV
RADIO
ONLINE
WEATHER
The final is set to be played under a status yellow weather warning as Storm Ashley makes its mark. Rain heavy at first will clear northeast on Sunday morning to leave varying cloud, blustery showers and some sunshine. Highest temperatures of 13 to 15 degrees. For more, visit met.ie.
PATHS TO THE FINAL
Shelbourne
First round
Galway United 1 Shelbourne 3
Quarter-final
Shamrock Rovers 0 Shelbourne 1 (AET)
Semi-final
Shelbourne 5 Cork City 0
Athlone Town
Quarter-final
Treaty United 1 Athlone Town 2
Semi-final
Sligo Rovers 0 Athlone Town 1
TOP SCORERS
Athlone Town: Brenda Ebika Tabe, Kerryann Brown, Shauna Brennan (all 1 goal).
Shelbourne: Noelle Murray, Megan Smyth-Lynch (both 2 goals).
STORM WARNINGS AROUND DECIDER
Strom Ashley will be making its presence felt in Tallaght during this final, but the build-up has been blown up in the air by other gusts as Athlone boss Ciaran Kilduff saw his pre-match comments end up dominating Eileen Gleeson's Republic of Ireland press conference as she announced her squad for their Euro play-off with Georgia.
In the lead up to that media briefing, Kilduff aired his views that League of Ireland players weren’t getting enough senior international recognition, something Gleeson described as "misrepresentative".
Tomorrow’s final, the showpiece event in Irish women’s domestic soccer, will feature only one player in Gleeson’s squad – Athlone goalkeeper Katie Keane who was handed her first call-up for the Georgia clashes.
From her clean sheet in March’s President’s Cup win over Peamount United, the Meath shot-stopper has been rock solid between the posts and would add another 11 clean sheets before this weekend's season-ender.
Athlone only conceded 16 goals in the league this season with three coming in their final fixture against Galway when already crowned champions, so Eoin Wearan's side are going to have to be inventive to find a way past that Town defence.
A SHIFT IN BALANCE?
Last year in the league, Shelbourne did the double over Athlone, winning 4-1 away from home and 2-1 at Tolka Park, but Athlone’s penalty shoot-out win in the 2023 cup final undoubtedly gave them the confidence to build on that success this season.
After an early-season 1-1 league draw, the temperature had been raised by the time they met at Tolka in mid-August with just seven games of the league remaining after that.
It was a fiery encounter from the off, but Athlone showed their character to come from behind with goals from Brenda Ebika Tabe and Kerryann Brown inflicting a first league defeat of the season on Shels.
That put them three clear at the top, and they won their first-ever league title by just two points, so its significance on the season, both in terms of points and what it meant psychologically, cannot be understated.
Two years ago Shelbourne completed the domestic double, beating Athlone in the cup final, are we about to see a complete flip?
BIG DAY FOR LANDMARK PLAYERS
Experience is key on cup final team and both teams will be looking to players who enjoyed landmark days with their clubs in recent weeks.
There was a big day for the Slattery family at Tolka Park at the start of the month as team captain Pearl was honoured after making her 200th appearance in red.
"I think our motivation is, we don't want to feel the way we did last year," said Slattery ahead of Sunday's final.
"This is why we train so much in the off-season, pre-season, all the way through the season. You have to enjoy these weeks together as a group. Every year it's a different experience."
For Athlone, Kellie Brennan has been there from the start of their journey back in 2020 and last month she made her 100th appearance for the Westmeath club.
"When I was younger I’d dream of coming to play these games, stuff like that, but I’m really excited to get going. Hopefully we’ll do what we did last year," she said.
"It’s always going to be a hard battle playing against them. That’s the kind of games you live to play in, against Shels.
"We have the belief that we can go out there and put our best foot forward, like we did last year. We know it’s not going to be easy."