Saturday’s All-Island Cup quarter-final tie kicks off at 4 pm in Tallaght Stadium. Tickets available here

We followed up our win against Bohs with another impressive performance and a convincing 4-1 win away to Sligo last week. Are you pleased that the results are finally coming along with their performances?

Yeah, I’m happy that we were able to put two wins together back to back. The performance was good again and even, I suppose most importantly, we didn’t crumble, we didn’t panic once we went a goal behind. We stuck to what we know we’re good at and we knew the chances would come, and thankfully the goals came as well. Overall, very pleased.

We went 1-0 down but we got our equaliser just before the break, and then in the second half we came out and we scored 3 goals to solidify the win. Were you pleased with the reaction to going one down, and then along with that the confidence that the team found to perform in that second half?

Yeah, I was very, very pleased with it. It’s probably the most pleasing aspect of it. Again, it’s that mental strength part of it that we’ve been working on, not to change our ways or to try not to feel the pressure once we go a goal behind and to not change our behaviour, just stick with what we’re good at. Very pleased that that’s exactly what we did, and we created numerous chances even after going one behind and I think it was only a matter of time before we got at least one goal.

This week we face Peamount in the All-Island Cup Quarter Final. It’s our first knockout game of the season, so are the players focused on getting the win, not only so we can progress into the next round, but also to give us belief going into other knockout matches later this season?

Yeah, they’ve been really looking forward to it all week. It’s one of the local rivalries. We obviously didn’t do too well just a few weeks ago so we are looking to try and put that game right. The main thing that we can focus on is just the performance and we’re just hoping that at least the performance is good and then most of the time when the performance is good, the results should look after themselves. Again, the focus is just on the small little bits of performance.

The last time we faced Peamount at home it was a 2-0 defeat, with Erin McLaughlin getting on the scoresheet twice for Peamount. Is she a player that the team will have to pay particular attention to throughout the game?

Absolutely, she’s quality not just for Peamount but for the league as a whole. She’s one of those players that if you give her half a chance, she’ll punish you. An awful lot of players you have to give a full chance to but Erin is one of them that will take a half chance and gladly stick it in the back of the net. She’s one of those players that I hope stays around the league for a good number of years because she’ll get called into international setup and it helps grow the league when you have players that have been in international setups playing within the league. It’s one that we’re going to have to watch out for as well as several other Peamount players, but we’ll do our homework as usual and be prepared as best as we can. We’ll go and have a crack at it and see where it takes us. 

After being injured since she joined at the start of the season, Fiona Owens came off the bench to make her debut against Sligo. What does she add to the team when she plays and could she feature at some point this weekend?

She could feature at some point this weekend. She’s done really well in training, it’s been a long road to recovery for her because it’s been about a year and a couple of months since she last played within the league so it’s been a very, very long-term injury. She’s a great dynamic fullback who likes to get forward but also what we’ve noticed in training is her defending aspects are very good too. There are great little battles between Lia (O’Leary) and Fiona in training during the week so there’s good competition for places now that she’s back into the squad and into the setup.

Are there any injury worries going into the game?

Thankfully no, fingers crossed long may that continue. It’s a full bill of health. Savannah (McCarthy) is ramping up on her comeback, she joined in training on Wednesday so hopefully it won’t be too long until we see her back into the matchday squad too.