Shelbourne Ladies 5 Wexford Youths 0
A combination of revenge and youthful exuberance helped Shelbourne engineer an emphatic Women’s FAI Cup final victory yesterday over their fiercest of rivals.
Teenager Leanne Kiernan wasn't part of the Shels squad dethroned by Wexford Youths last year at Lansdowne Road but her hat-trick was the standout feat of an utterly convincing display.
American-born striker Gloria Douglas, who scored the fourth goal, was another one of the few players not involved 12 months ago, yet the likes of Noelle Murray and captain Pearl Slattery were eager to put that blemish to rest by re-establishing the league leaders as the dominant force of women's football.
Murray has a long and mixed history with the national cup, from being sent-off in her first final nine years ago to winning a three-in-a-row of trophies for Raheny United, the club which merged to become Shelbourne last year.
When she missed a 16th-minute penalty with the game scoreless, the latest entry to her storied influence on finals looked ominous but she soon atoned by volleying in the opener.
Kiernan, the 17-year-old Irish youth international, underlined their superiority by burying a brace before half-time and completed her hat-trick 12 minutes from the end after Douglas had bagged the fourth.
"Our older players definitely wanted to exorcise last year's defeat because we really threw that game away," admitted Mark Leavy, previously assistant to Casey McQuillan who took the reins for this season.
Wexford can rightly point to a number of absentees through long-term injuries for their struggles this season and, apart from a couple of fleeting moments, they were by a long distance second best on their return to Dublin 4.
Although Sophie Lenehan saved Murray's weak penalty, the Wexford goalkeeper was left floundering in dealing with a deep free-kick in the 31st minute which resulted in the same Shels player hooking the dropping ball past her.
Kiernan’s pace unhinged Wexford’s defence twice before the break, firstly by drifting in from the right-wing onto a through-ball by Douglas three minutes later to skip past Lenehan and tap home.
A similar move in first-half stoppage-time, with Murray providing the pass, allowed the youngster ghost in and stroke the ball in from 10 yards.
Douglas was rewarded for her display with a 64th-minute goal from a header which bizarrely dropped down over the line after smacking off the crossbar and spinning up into the air.
Kiernan also scored via the crossbar, the underside part, in converting a penalty after Jessica Gleeson had fouled Siobhan Killeen inside the box.
WEXFORD YOUTHS: Lenehan, Conlon, Gleeson, O'Riordan, Webb, Hansberry, Frawley, Sinnott (capt), Douglas, Delahunty (Snell, 85 mins), Walsh (Hutchinson, 67 mins).
SHELBOURNE LADIES: McQuillan, Cooke, Walsh, Slattery (capt), Kavanagh, Graham (Craven, 83 mins), Kiernan (Watters, 83 mins), Murray, Killeen, Higgins, Douglas.
