ronan fagan
Goals from Dana Scheriff and Roisin Molloy ensured the Athlone Town senior women’s team started life under new management with a victory over Linfield Town in the Avenir Sports All-Island Cup.
Despite this victory however, the team exited the competition and will now reset and refocus before their return to league action.
The win marks a successful start for new manager, Ciarán Kilduff, who was appointed to the role late last week, the announcement confirmed via a statement issued by the club’s board.
‘The Board of Athlone Town AFC are delighted to confirm that Ciarán Kilduff has been appointed to the role of Manager for our senior women’s team.
‘Ciarán is well known in the League of Ireland where he had a very distinguished career having won the First Division title with UCD (2009 ) and Shelbourne (2019 ) and the Premier Division title with Shamrock Rovers (2011 ) and Dundalk (2015 & 2016 ).
‘Indeed, his exploits in Europe with Dundalk are the stuff of legend having scored the equalizer against AZ Alkmaar to ensure that Dundalk became the first Irish team to win a point in the group stages of a European competition and he then followed that up by scoring the winner against Maccabi Tel Aviv in the next group game,’ the statement detailed.
Referencing his appointment, Kilduff expressed his aspirations for the remainder of the season.
“I’m delighted to be here and to get this opportunity to manage at the top level of Women’s football and I’m looking forward to getting started with the girls. We have a game at the weekend with Linfield FC which will be an ideal opportunity to see them in competitive action before the break and we can then develop our plan of action for the second half of the season,” Kilduff enthused.
Kilduff holds a UEFA A coaching license and in recent years has been working in Women’s football while also managing the Maynooth University women’s team.
