Cliftonville defeat Cork City to reach All-Island Cup final

INTO FINAL: Cliftonville overcome Cork City to reach the All-Island Cup final. Pic: Stephen Marken/Sportsfile

Avenir Sports All-Island Cup

Cliftonville 1-0 Cork City 

Cliftonville will play Galway United in the final of the Avenir Sports All-Island Cup after they beat Cork City 1-0 at Solitude in Belfast.

The Women’s Premiership champions made light work of the Rebel Army after Caitlin McGuinness scored from a corner in the 11th minute.

Danny Murphy and his players faced a Cliftonville team that had four members of the Northern Ireland squad that played at the 2022 European Championships.

This game also marked another step to a potential quadruple for the Reds, with the club looking at winning back to back Women’s Premiership titles for the first time in their history.

As for City, it was all about continuing an adventure that began with their first win of the season.

This gave the team a sense of freedom that manifested in a number of chances in the opening ten minutes. Cliftonville gave them very little room and this spell came to an end with Rachel Norney saving a shot from distance.

Then the home side won a corner and McGuinness headed in what turned out to be the only goal of the game.

Chloe Atkinson tried to instantly respond for City and her long range attempt went wide. Cliftonville shrugged this off and Katie Markey broke down the left wing when the game restarted. She picked out McGuinness inside the area and Abby McCarthy jumped in to stop the striker from turning the ball in.

The half-hour mark saw City win their first corner and Eva Mangan’s set-piece was cleared to Lauren Walsh. She steadied herself and set up a passage of play that led to a shot from Atikinson getting blocked inside the area.

Cliftonville had a number of opportunities to seal the win in the second half but they were denied by an inspired Abby McCarthy.

The Reds are now through to play Galway United, who qualified for the final by beating Wexford Youths on penalties at Ferrycarrig Park.

It was 0-0 at half-time and Rianna Jarrett opened the scoring in the 52nd minute by getting her fourth goal of the tournament from close range after Wexford won a turnover inside the Galway penalty area.

After Kate Thompson equalised in the 70th minute, penalties were needed to decide who was going through.

Ciara Rossiter missed the decisive kick for Wexford and Gemma McGuinness converted to make it 4-3 and send Galway United through to their first ever final.

CLIFTONVILLE: Rachel Norney; Kelsie Burrows, Hannah Doherty, Fionnula Morgan, Danielle Maxwell, Louise McDaniel, Caitlin McGuinness, Victoria Carleton, Marissa Callaghan, Katie Markey, Abbie McGee (Orleigha McGuiness 80).

CORK CITY: Abby McCarthy; Lauren Walsh, Ciara McNamara, Christina Dring, Eva Mangan, Shaunagh McCarthy, Ellie O’Brien (Lauren Singleton 86), Chloe Atkinson (Heidi O’Sullivan 58), Jesse Mendez, Niamh Cotter (Danielle Burke 73), Fiana Bradley.

Referee: Stephen Logan