Saturday evening’s game in the Showgrounds kicks off at 7 pm. Coverage on LOITV

We got our first league win last weekend with a triumphant 0-4 scoreline over Bohs in Dalymount. What do you think we had in that game that was different to the rest of the games this season to be able to pull off a win as big as that?

We had our finishing boots on, I think that was the main thing. The performance was really good. Confidence was good, the mindset work has been coming off, and the players obviously had their focus in the right areas. We actually looked like a team that had won nearly all of our league games this year with the confidence that they played with. It was nice for the players to be able to go and get that win but I think the difference was we just had an extra bit of mental strength and had the finishing boots on.

Now that we’ve got that first win under our belt, will the squad have more confidence to go on a good run for the rest of the season, continuing with Sligo away this week?

I hope so but we spoke about it immediately after the game. Just because we got that first win doesn’t mean the second one comes straight away and very easily, it means that we have to add to what we did last Saturday. It’s going to be a really, really tough game against Sligo although their results haven’t gone well, but you could say the same for us, performances have been good but results haven’t gone well so Sligo are going to be a very, very difficult team to play against.

Sligo have had a difficult start to the season, but they put it up to us the last time that we faced them in The Showgrounds, which was the first game of last season with us winning thanks to a last minute goal from Áine. Do you think she could be the difference if it’s another close game?

It is players like Áine that are the key difference in those really tight games and I do expect a really, really tight game. I’ve already watched them play against Galway and Shels and there was absolutely nothing in the games. Against Galway, they only conceded in the last minute from a penalty and against Shels they held them to a 0-0 draw in Tolka at the start of the season. I think when they play against some of the so-called ‘bigger names’ in the league they up their game and are well able to make it very, very difficult for them.

Áine also scored one of our three headed goals that we got last week that all came from good deliveries into the box. Is that something that the team has been focusing on in training recently?

I think every week for the last 10 or 12 weeks we’ve worked on crossing and finishing so it was nice to be able to see that some of that work has eventually started to pay off. Some great deliveries by Lia, and even by Áine. Both wide players in Katie and Lia were excellent on the day and were a threat all the time going forward. It’s nice to see that we finally got some rewards for all of that work being done. 

After that great result last week, will the team be determined to immediately back that up with more of the same down in Sligo?

Yeah, that’s what we’ve been trying to focus on this week, that’s the priority, that’s the target. That’s what we’re working towards because there’s no point having that one little high and one little win. We enjoyed the feeling at the end of that game and we want some more of it. We know what work is required and we’ve got to go about doing that work so that has been the full focus this week.

Sligo lost 2-0 last week to DLR Waves but they’re back at home for the last game before the mid-season break and are gunning for their first league win this season. How do you plan to approach the game?

It’s again trying to focus on us and our strengths, and trying to get into more of those wide areas and work on our attacking patterns of play because trying to get those early goals makes a big difference within this league and whoever scores first the majority of the time go on to get that victory. It’s important that we start quickly, we start bright, but we’re well aware of Sligo’s threats. They have two good players in the middle of the park in Emma Hansberry and Muireann Devaney and up top they have Emma Doherty. There’s good strength there through the spine of that team so it is going to be difficult but our focus this whole week has been on us and trying to improve what we did last Saturday 

Are there any injury updates heading into the game?

I think the only injury update that we have is there’s a chance of Jaime Thompson missing out due to getting a knock on the head during the week. She’s being assessed actually right now at this moment (Wednesday evening) so we’ll see how that goes. Obviously Savannah is on her return to play protocol and is making good strides but other than that, it’s a full squad to pick from.