Galway WFC coming to the boil at perfect time – Clery

GALWAY WFC manager Billy Clery feels his side are coming to the boil at just the right time as they prepare for their season-opening game against Cork City at Eamonn Deacy Park on Saturday (4pm) in the Women’s National League.

It is a sign of the standards he is setting his side this season that, speaking just after the final whistle of Galway WFC’s final preseason friendly last Saturday, the manager spoke of his frustration at the lack of goals his side scored in the game, a game they had just one 6-0!

“It was an impressive second-half, but in the first half we counted nine or 10 chances and we should have put two or three of them away,” said Clery after the win over Treaty United at Caulfield Industrial Park, Maree/Oranmore FC’s new 4g pitch.

When it is put to him that maybe recording an even bigger winning margin than the one his side just enjoyed might not be of any benefit, the city native moves quickly to dispel such a suggestion.

“Look, there might not be any good in that but you gather a lot of confidence from scoring goals and I would much prefer if we put another two or three or four goals on the scoresheet. There is never anything wrong with scoring goals, it instils confidence.

“True, it was a friendly and you can’t complain with 6-0, but you can’t be faulted with wanting to score more goals either. It was great to see Rachel [Kearns] scoring a couple, Elle [O’Flaherty] scored a couple, Lynsey McKey got a goal, Kaya [Pottinger] got off the mark; while at the other end, we kept a clean sheet, so we’re in a good place going in to next week’s game,” Clery said.

Saturday’s game was the fifth Galway WFC have played in preparation for the new season, with those five games condensed into a two-week window, and the improvement in performance from the first game – a 3-1 win over Athlone Town, also in Maree, back the start of March – to Saturday’s drubbing of the visitors from Limerick was stark.

Club captain Shauna Fox and midfield star Tessa Mullins have both said that, while it is great to get back to training, it is game-time that brings the players on in terms of match fitness and sharpness, and that was very much in evidence last weekend.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.

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