Kickoff in Tallaght Stadium is at 4 pm. Tickets are available online.

 Let’s start with the positives from last week’s game against Shels. Our first clean sheet and still unbeaten. Some really good performances all over the pitch especially from Joy and Lia. But were you and the team disappointed not to get the win after the penalty miss and Lia’s missed chance in the second half?

Yes, we were disappointed. I thought our performance deserved an awful lot more than just one point. It was a good performance, we were happy with how we went about our business, how we didn’t let Shels settle at all, and again, looking at more positives from it, it’s nice to be able to go away from home, to Tolka, and be the better side and be the one that’s feeling hard done by that you didn’t come away with the win. So at least there’s a lot of positives to take away from the game.

 We are in action at home to DLR Waves in the All Island Cup this week. After a draw last time out in this competition, how important is it for the team to get the win and to progress out of the group?

It’s really important. It’s got to the stage now where we need to just get over that line and get that first win of the season. The performances have been good but you begin to sound like a broken record when you’re saying performances have been good, but we’ve drawn again. And you go to the next game and the performance is good but you drew again, so it’s a case of being able to convert an awful lot more of those chances that we have been creating. It’s vitally important that we get the win on Saturday.

We played DLR in our first league game of the season (a 1-1 draw). Have you seen progress in our play since that game?

Yes, I’ve seen a lot of good progress in our play since then. Even last week against Shels we saw a different side of us. It was a game that we probably would have lost last year, where it was the difficult windy conditions, the pitch wasn’t great so our normal style of play, we couldn’t really implement it to our advantage, so there were an awful lot of second balls and fights. It was more the mentality side of things and it was a bit that we were lacking a little bit of last year so it’s something that’s going to stand to us as the season goes on.

Is there anyone in the DLR team that you think can cause us problems and that we may need to pay particular attention to on Saturday?

All of them. DLR is one of those sides that when you underestimate them, you find yourself 1-0 down and struggling to get back into the game. They’re very tenacious, they go about their business in a good manner, they don’t give you a second to settle on the ball. So, it’s really going to come down to us on our quickness of play, our tempo, and can we influence our style of play on them and make sure that a lot of their counter-attacks are nullified before they even start, and then just to make sure that Michelle Doonan isn’t getting in and around our box on those counter-attacks.

Is everyone available for selection for the game or will you look at it as a chance to maybe rest some players and give some of the fringe players a runout, as Lia, Aoife and Joy have played a lot of games recently?

Yes, they have, but we’ve used this cup competition to our advantage last year, and again this year where we have made some changes. We are looking at making some changes but still, the ask of the players doesn’t change in that it’s a vital game for us, and it’s one that we must win.

 Kick-off is at 4 o’clock in Tallaght Stadium on Saturday. How important for the players is it that we get a good crowd to support them? Can you see the girls respond when we have a big crowd in the ground on matchdays?

Yes, you can always see the girls respond when we have a good crowd and it’s something that is really, really vital. I think Shels were a bit disappointed with the attendance in Tolka last week, with it only being around the 300 mark, and it’s something that we took to our advantage because they were very quiet and there wasn’t much vocal support. When it is there and you are the home side, it does give you the extra lift and it does push you on. It does make you do the extra little bit and I think it’s going to be vitally important on Saturday that we have all those extra little one percentages to make sure that we can get that first win of the season.