Molloy savouring Athlone Town’s rise as Dutch adventure awaits

By Kevin Egan

More history will be made by the Athlone Town women’s team later today (Wednesday) when they play in a Champions League fixture away from home, taking on FC Breidablik (Iceland) in the Netherlands in the second qualifying round (12pm Irish time).

When Róisín Molloy joined Athlone Town, the women's team was just a year old and most of the players in the squad fit into one of two profiles. Molloy, who played Gaelic football with Sligo, was joined by the likes of Mo Nerney (Laois), Muireann Devaney (Leitrim), Laurie Ryan (Clare), bolstering a group that also contained several homegrown young players, such as defender Kayleigh Shine.

Fast forward four years to 2025, and while a few of the “originals” are still there, including Molloy, Shine, Kellie Brennan and Katelyn Keogh, the Town have sprinkled on a little fairy dust in the form of several overseas players.

The FAI Cup and the Premier Division title have been secured in recent seasons and having been part of this incredible rise, Molloy is understandably open to the idea that the sky remains the limit for the renowned midlands club.

“Initially when I started we were playing at such a different level, but even then we could see that there was a desire to push and invest on the women’s side of the club,” she said.

“There was huge potential there. Even in the second year we finished second in the league and got to a cup final, then we won the cup and the league the following year with Ciarán (Kilduff, manager).

“That was huge for us, to get that winning mentality in the group. It’s been an amazing journey for the team, we probably wouldn't have believed it four years ago, but now there’s so much belief in the team.

“We don’t have an end goal, we just want to push as far as you can. Obviously at this level the quality will increase a lot, but there is a belief in the squad that we can do something out here, we’re not going out to make up the numbers,” she continued.

This fixture has been coming since Athlone Town qualified on the back of two home wins against Welsh and Croatian opposition at the end of last month, but their bid to retain the Premier Division title has meant that it’s only this week that Molloy and her colleagues have been in a position to think about today’s fixture, and a potential follow up this Saturday against either Red Star Belgrade or host club FC Twente.

“The league games were so important but now we’re just excited to get going. That was a huge three points for us (against Shelbourne last Saturday) and we wanted to go into the Champions League window on top of the table and we’ve done that.”

A meeting with Nick Giannotti, the new American chairman of Athlone Town AFC, was a further source of encouragement to Molloy.

“We all met Nick when the European games were going on the last time. He was really positive and enthusiastic, he’s been great to work with in terms of the women’s side of the club. He’s back in America now but Stephen Gray has come in as the CEO and we’ve had really positive meetings with him as well, he really wants to push the women’s side of the club on. This game (against Breidablik) is massive for the club and for women’s football in Ireland as well.

“There’s a lot of quality in the league and it’s important that we show that, we demonstrate that the women’s game is growing in this country. That’s really important and we want to do our best for that going forward,” Molloy added.