Shelbourne FC have won the FAI Women's Cup in emphatic fashion after routing league champions Athlone 6-1 in Tallaght Stadium this afternoon.
In what was truly a game of two halves, Kate Mooney opened up Shelbourne's account in just the sixth minute when she capitalised on a defensive error from Athlone Town.
Kate Mooney opens the scoring for Shelbourne after a bounce is misjudged in the Athlone defence.
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Things went from bad to worse then for the Midlands outfit with Noelle Murray netting a 13th-minute penalty. While the game levelled off for a couple of minutes, Shelbourne's onslaught was inevitable.
The Reds went on to net a further four goals before the break, with Mooney, Murray, Jess Gargan and Leah Doyle all getting on the scoreboard for Shels. While Athlone's Brenda Tabe claimed a conciliatory goal before the break, it did little to soften what was a crushing forty-five minutes of football for Athlone.
Leah Doyle makes it six.
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Despite the seven-goal opening half, neither side would find the net again, with Shelbourne turning on cruise control and drifting to the podium in Tallaght Stadium.
Shelbourne manager struggles to keep up after seven-goal stunner
Speaking to RTÉ after their win, Shelbourne manager Eoin Wearen was left delighted by the result that his side had shown real 'hunger' for, claiming that the girls and the staff deserved the win.
Over the moon but its no more than the players deserve..since we've been in for pre-season I've said there's been a hunger in the group after last year not winning a trophy and I've seen that for the last nine or ten months and these players deserve this. They deserve a day like today.
Today was one of those unusual halves where every shot we took seemed to go in..but look I couldn't be happier for the girls and the club today.
While Wearen was overjoyed with his side's win, even he the manager had struggled to keep up with his side's goal scorers, revealing he felt bad for forgetting one of them.
Yeah we were just extremely clinical, over the last ten games in particular Noelle and Kate have been outstanding in terms of their output and today they took their chances really well and it was also a great finish from Leah.
I actually forget the other one, I feel bad now, but I think we were outstanding and we started the game really well.
"The players deserve it"
Shelbourne manager Eoin Wearen was delighted after watching his side complete a cup final rout against Athlone
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While Wearen may have forgotten one of his side's six goals, Shelbourne and Wearen's meticulous preparation for Sunday's final delivered an absolutely exceptional win for Shels.
Today's result will already have fans looking forward to what could be one of the league's most competitive seasons next year as Galway, Shelbourne, Tallaght and Athlone will all be rueing the opportunities that they missed.
