The Blues picked up their first win of the season on Sunday evening with an impressive win away to DLR Waves at the UCD Bowl thanks to Meadhbh Doherty’s powerful header inside the opening ten minutes.
Gary Hunt named an unchanged side for our clash against DLR Waves at the UCD Bowl on Sunday afternoon, Olivia Shannon leading the line for the Blues alongside Fiana Bradley.
After a strong start to the action, the Blues were rewarded for their efforts after 10 minutes when Meadhbh Doherty netted her first goal of the season, heading home Fiana Bradley’s in-swinging corner kick delivery, to give Gary Hunt’s side a deserved lead early on.
The Blues looked to add to their lead shortly after, with Fiana Bradley forcing Summer Lawless into a smart low save after 20 minutes, with Olivia Shannon also causing a handful for the home sides defence.
Just after the half-hour mark, DLR tested Maeve Williams for the first time, with Keelin Dodd stinging the hands of the blues skipper with her free-kick effort just outside the Waterford penalty area.
Olivia Shannon came inches away from doubling our lead just before half-time, with her looping effort over Lawless narrowly going over the DLR crossbar after getting on the end of a set-piece delivery at the back post, in what proved to be the last clear cut chance of the first-half.
Leah O’Donoghue threatened early on in the second-half with an effort similar to Shannon’s in the first-half, seeing her flicked effort fly just over Lawless’ crossbar.
Fiana Bradley was next to try her luck, cutting in from the right-hand channel just before the hour-mark, as she saw her effort go wide from 25 yards.
The hosts made a triple substitution early into the second-half, looking to break down the strong Blues defence, with the Waterford back-line equal to everything thrown at them as they looked to pick up their latest clean sheet of the season.
Anna Gornell was introduced from the substitutes bench with twenty minutes remaining, replacing Mia Lenihan, as she saw an effort on goal blocked on the edge of the DLR area just minutes after coming on as the Blues continued to add to their early goal.
Kate Tomkins was next to be sprung from the bench by Gary Hunt inside the final ten minutes, as Tomkins became the latest Waterford FC Academy graduate to make her first-team debut for our women’s first-team, taking her place at the front of the Blues attack.
With seven minutes additional time added on at the end of the action, the Blues comfortably saw out the added time to pick up our first win of the season.
DLR WAVES FC: Lawless (GK), L. Donnelly, McCarthy, Gleeson (C) (78′ C. Donnelly), Dodd, Cosgrave (53′ Nyangasi), Muddiman, Doonan (53′ Meehan), Conheady (78′ Strong), Doyle, Moore (53′ Cullen).
WATERFORD FC: Williams (GK) (C); Conroy, Dumevi, D. Burke, Doherty, Lawler, O’Donoghue (86′ Tomkins), Lenihan (71′ Gornell), Walsh; Shannon, Bradley.
