The 2024 Sports Direct Women’s FAI Cup has a familiar looking semi-final line-up, with three of last season’s final four having arrived at the penultimate stage once again.
For the second season running, Athlone Town will travel to The Showgrounds for a semi-final meeting with Sligo Rovers, while Shelbourne will host Cork City at Tolka Park for a place in the 20 October showpiece.
Sligo Rovers and Cork City will be hopeful of claiming unlikely results but a quick glance at the SSE Airtricity Women’s Premier Division table points to another Athlone Town v Shelbourne showdown at Tallaght Stadium.
The two clubs met in the finals of 2022 and 2023, with Shels completing a league and cup double on the first occasion, before Athlone got their revenge via a penalty shootout success the following year.
Nearly 12 months later and this rivalry rumbles on, with both clubs now eyeing up a double, as Athlone sit top of the league table, two points ahead of Shels and Galway United, who have both played a game more than Ciarán Kilduff’s charges.
Last year’s cup win served as springboard for Athlone’s success this campaign and standing in their way of a place in a third successive final are Sligo Rovers, who have played 17 league games this season without winning any of them.
It was just last month that Athlone put five past Sligo, although this was helped by the Bit O’Red going down to 10 players after just 60 seconds, when goalkeeper Bonnie McKiernan was sent off.
Suffice to say, Sligo are better than the four points they have accumulated throughout their league campaign, and they put in a strong display as recently as last weekend when a late Keri Loughrey goal rescued a point in a 1-1 draw away at Shamrock Rovers.
“Athlone will rightly be overwhelming favourites on Sunday, but I know that the Sligo Rovers players can put in a performance that they will be happy with,” Bit O’Red boss Tommy Hewitt said ahead of the game.
“We had three hard games in seven days last week and we were better in the third game despite losing the first two and conceding eight goals.
“We now can go into the cup semi-final knowing that we can compete, but we have to bring consistency to our performances, once we do that we will have a chance.
“We definitely won’t lie down and roll over and hopefully we will make a contest out of it.”
Sligo are young as a senior women’s side, having debuted in the league in 2022, and back-to-back runs to FAI Cup semi-finals have given their supporters something to shout about.
Their hopes remain faint though with Athlone in ominous form, winning 12 of their last 13 league games.
Should Kilduff’s side get through as expected, either Shelbourne or Cork City will be waiting for them, with that game at Tolka Park set for Saturday afternoon.
The Reds had gotten used to winning silverware under the management of Noel King, who guided them to league success in 2021 before that league and cup double a year later.
King departed after last year’s cup final defeat, and the reins were taken up by former League of Ireland midfielder Eoin Wearen, who faces a make-or-break few weeks in both of the major competitions.
Shels face a Cork side who have been inconsistent throughout the campaign and have now gone six games in the league without tasting victory.
Danny Murphy’s Rebels have been shipping goals this season, with their 38 conceded being more than any other side in the league.
Nine of that tally came in their two meetings with Saturday’s opponents, and midfielder Orlaith O’Mahony is aware that they will have to tighten up if they are to reach the final for the first time since lifting the trophy at Aviva Stadium in 2017.
“Shels away in Tolka Park is always a tough place to go to, but we love a challenge and these games, as players, we want to play in,” said O’Mahony, who scored in the quarter-final win over Bohemians.
When the domestic prizes are handed out over the coming weeks, it would be a big surprise if neither Athlone or Shels are among the teams receiving them.
Sligo Rovers and Cork City each have the opportunity to instil a degree of success into otherwise forgettable campaigns but we should expect to see the big two do battle at Tallaght Stadium once again on 20 October.
