Roisin pays visit to Mayo team

Key player of the all-conquering Athlone Town team, Roisin Molloy made a very welcome visit to Umbro Park, Castlebar to speak to the Mayo U13 girls squad just before Christmas. The former Kiltimagh-Knock United player, along with her Athlone teammates, won this season’s Women’s National League title, also added the WFAI Cup, played in the Champions League and to cap it all off, Roisin was named on the WNL Team of the Year. The meeting was facilitated by Mayo U13s coach Michael Collins, under whom Roisin played for two seasons at Kiltimagh-Knock United prior to joining Athlone.

The young Mayo girls were just finished with their weekly early morning training session when they took their places in the classroom to hear Roisin speak. She gave a very interesting and detailed account on her playing career from lining out with a boys’ team in her native Gurteen, playing several years underage with Castlebar Celtic before joining Sligo Rovers in the inaugural WU17 League of Ireland.

After completing two seasons at the Showgrounds, she came back to Mayo again to ply her trade, this time lining out for Kiltimagh-Knock at both U19 and senior level in the Mayo Women’s League. This was a period of time, Roisin reflected, where she rediscovered her love for the game and began to really push on as a player.

Michael Collins joked that she comes across as a very shy woman off the pitch but when she crosses that white line it’s a different matter. While obviously aware of her ability in jousts with Castlebar Celtic and Roisin being in Gaynor Cup squads where she actually featured for four years, one with Sligo-Leitrim and three with Mayo Schoolboys/Girls, Michael admitted that it was only when he worked closely with her at Kiltimagh-Knock that he realised that this girl was better than what he thought. “Her ability and willingness to always take on a player and look to go forward set her apart,” he said.

Roisin agreed that her ability trajectory certainly soared at that time due to the surroundings she found herself in. Collins noted that this was a most pertinent observation coming from a player of Roisin’s standing and indeed it was something that he mentioned recently in his capacity as chairperson of the Mayo Women’s League (MWL) about the absolute necessity for grassroots clubs in Mayo to have ladies’ sides available for players not playing League of Ireland. Roisin stands before us as a player who left the MWL and made the switch to the upper echelons of women’s football in this county effortlessly.

An interesting Q&A then followed between the squad and Roisin. The questions were many and very varied. Had Roisin ever taken a penalty? What was the best stadium and the most famous club she had so far opposed? FK Crvena Zvezda – or better known as Red Star Belgrade – was the answer to the last question.

The Mayo U13 manager John Hennelly thanked Roisin and pointed out that she was a great role model for the girls in the room as she had walked that same pathway that these girls are following.

The final word went to Roisin, who said that it was lovely meeting the group and that she really enjoyed chatting with everyone. She thought it was great to see how keen and ambitious all the girls are.

Later that day at Umbro Park, the Mayo under-12 girls faced old rivals Galway in a SFAI Inter League group game. Mayo looked the better side early on, but Galway were always threatening on the attack, and two good strikes had them leading. The next goal in the contest was going to be very important and while Mayo were unlucky not to claw a goal back, it was Galway who scored again to lead 3-0 at the interval.

A fourth Galway goal still didn’t dishearten the young Mayo girls, and they scored twice through Ava Conneely-Basham and Brianna Gylnn. Unfortunately, Galway had two more goals sandwiched between the Mayo ones to leave the final score 6-2 to Galway. Next up for this young developing Mayo side is the Midlands League in January.