Treaty United bid to Finish Top of WNL Tier 2

Treaty United will finish their 2020 Women’s National League campaign on Saturday afternoon when they welcome DLR Waves to Jackman Park (2pm).

The club have the chance to finish top of tier 2 and are currently two points ahead of Saturday’s opponents. DLR Waves missed the chance to go level on points with Treaty following last weekend’s 0-0 draw with Athlone.

The Limerick based club are in a healthy position following a 4-5 away win against Bohemians two weeks ago. The second victory of the season over the Dublin outfit certainly helped build the points tally of 9 thus far.

The earlier meeting between Treaty and DLR ended in a 0-2 away win for Dave Rooney’s side who will be confident of gaining a result on Saturday. Rooney’s charges come into the game off the back of a 2-0 defeat in the Women’s FAI Cup Semi-Final against Munster rivals Cork City.

The Candystripes were fierce underdogs for the game and feared the worst after 12 minutes as they found themselves 2-0 down thanks to a brace from Cork striker Saoirse Noonan. However, the team showed great character from that point on and had big chances through Chloe Connolly, Gillian Keenan and Aoife Cronin but were unable to capitalise in a second half that they dominated.

Reaching an FAI Cup Semi-Final was a big achievement for the club in their first year in existence but finishing in midtable would feel even sweeter for Rooney who is vying for constant progress and more consistency in the future.

Despite sitting in 6th position at present, Treaty currently have the worst defensive record in the division and it is a deficiency that angered Rooney in the Bohemians game in particular but he also praised the recent character shown by the team.

“Some of the goals we gave away last week (against Bohs) were criminal. We had a few really harsh words at half-time. In the three years with the girls, I have never lost the head but I did that weekend.

As bad as we were, we were only 3-2 down at half-time and we played some really good football in their third and scored some great goals. In fairness to the girls, they reacted and showed great bottle in the second half. “

As previously mentioned, a victory on Saturday will ensure a 6th place finish. Rooney admits that he would have been happy with that had he been offered such a situation at the start of the campaign.

“If you had said to me at the start of the year that you would finish best of the rest as such and get to a cup semi-final, I would have said that’s a good season. It would have meant us finishing ahead of DLR or Cork and currently its DLR we are ahead of.

We would have expected to finish ahead of the two new teams but in fairness to Athlone they had our number this year. Its been a development season and we have a lot of young players playing regularly.”

Rooney has selected a raft of u-17 players this season and has maximised the squad as much as any other side in the division so he cannot be faulted for his faith in his squad’s ability. The likes of Jenna Slattery have made great progress and at such a young age, the management team will be hoping that the lessons learned this season will stand to their players in the short and long-term future.