Having never come this far before in the competition, the Trinity Ladies Soccer (DULAFC) team was always on the back foot against a Maynooth side at the top of the Women’s League Premier Division, one that included many international and national league players.
Trinity was one of only two second division sides to qualify for this stage of the competition, with the rest of the teams coming from the Premier Division, and eventually the class of the opposition told.
The side was hugely depleted with nearly a third of the normal A team unavailable due to injuries and other commitments. As a result, a squad of 12 girls travelled for the game but, through illness, Trinity played the second half with only 10 on the field. Despite this, a much-improved second-half performance restricted their illustrious opponents to four second-half goals.
Standout performers included former-Captain Katie Moore in defence as well as Nicole Hanley in goal working hard to keep the opposition at bay. The side now look forward to a well-earned break before pushing on in the second half of the year. They return to action with the Futsal National Finals taking place on January 25th as well as playoffs for their league season.
The club has been excelling this year on the Futsal court. DULAFC progressed to the National Futsal Finals on Tuesday, December 6th after an 8-0 victory over Dublin Business School (DBS) saw their A side finish second in its group.
In the four-team round-robin tournament, Trinity Ladies’ A and B sides finished second and third respectively, playing each other in a decisive final group game with the A side taking the spoils in a 4-1 victory. The results were a continuation of the successes the side have enjoyed this season, which included qualifying for intervarsities.
In the league, DULAFC qualified for the quarterfinal playoff in Division 2 Group A of the Women’s Soccer Colleges Association of Ireland (WSCAI). Victory there would see them one step closer to promotion.
The B side will also advance to the WSCAI League Shield matches taking place in the new year. Two players looking to continue their encouraging form in front of goal are Rogan Dolan and Sara McGeough, who have managed to get into the top five scorers for the league and intervarsities, with Dolan netting 10 and McGeough six in their three games.
