Devaney feels Athlone can learn from cup final defeat
By Daire Walsh
The result may not have gone her side’s way on the day, but the FAI Women’s Cup final at Tallaght Stadium was still an unforgettable experience for Athlone midfielder Muireann Devaney.
A native of Glencar in Leitrim, Devaney was a vital cog for an Athlone side that achieved a second-place finish in this year's Women’s National League. She also played her part last Sunday week as Athlone took on WNL champions Shelbourne in front of a record crowd of 5,073.
While goals from Jessie Stapleton and Pearl Slattery were enough to propel the Dubliners towards a 2-0 victory in the end, Devaney recognised how big the game was in the continued evolution of this Athlone team.
“I’m 19 from a small town. You don’t get occasions like this very often and I heard 5,000 people were here and that’s a credit to the growth of women’s sport here in Ireland. We heard every bit of noise out there on the pitch. It’s absolutely amazing to play on that field, hear the crowd behind you and the atmosphere. It’s an experience like no other, to be honest with you,” Devaney articulated.
“There was a lot of noise there from Athlone support, it could have been even more than Shelbourne. That’s down to maybe the pride we have brought back to the club and they’ve shown it back to us. We really appreciate their support all throughout the season. They’ve come to Athlone on cold nights and supported us, and we really appreciated it.”
After claiming the WNL's seventh spot in both 2020 and 2021, it is reasonable to suggest Athlone Town exceeded expectations in challenging so strongly for both the league and cup trophies this year. Nevertheless, Devaney and her team-mates were naturally disappointed to come up just short on both fronts and the University of Galway student is hoping to absorb some key lessons from the cup final defeat.
“One of our main aims at the start of the year was to put it up to the big teams like Shelbourne, Peamount, Wexford. If you were to tell us we’d play Shelbourne in the cup final or finish second in the league, we would have taken it with open arms.
“When you get to the cup final, all you want to do is win. Second best just isn’t good enough. We have to learn from nights like tonight and games throughout the league where maybe we just lost out on those few points that we needed. Hopefully we’ll learn and we’ll be back again.”
In relation to the decision to rule out Scarlett Herron’s second-half headed finish, Devaney echoed the sentiments of her manager Tommy Hewitt. At the same time, she did rue a lull period that saw Athlone twice conceding from set-pieces.
“Personally, I have watched the goal back just there after and if I’m to give my own opinion, it wasn’t offside. I’d like if the officials would look back on it. When you play a big game, something like that is really, really disappointing to be let down like that. If we were to get that goal back, God only knows what would have happened.
“We were a magnificent team there for 70 minutes, probably 10 minutes or 20 minutes let us down, but that’s the joys of sport. You have to be the best team for 90 minutes to win. We let in two sloppy goals and that just cost us at the end of the day. That’s sport, but we’ll go again next year hopefully,” Devaney added.
Devaney is one of three nominees for the 2022 SSE Airtricity WNL 'Young Player of the Year' award along with Shelbourne's Jessie Stapleton and Emma Doherty of Sligo Rovers.