Graham Kelly: ‘I was worried, they had a really good spell in that second half where they were on top’

Paul Corcoran reports from Athlone Town Stadium

DLR Waves secured their fourth win of the Women’s National League campaign on Saturday night when they ran out 1-0 winners over Athlone Town.

The win keeps the Dublin side within five points of the top of the table and manager Graham Kelly was pleased with the win.

“Very hard fought, I’m absolutely thrilled with the three points because Athlone are a very good team and they caused us all sorts of problems there today,” Kelly said, speaking to extratime.com after the game on Saturday night.

“They can feel a little hard done by, but it’s just a massive three points for us and we take it.

Waves’ goal was a well worked set-piece with Shauna Carroll finding Carla McManus’ head from a corner with the move that ultimately won the game for the visitors.

“Brilliant goal from Carla, she’s flying, third goal of the season for her and she’s missed two games with injury, so she’s in great form at the moment.

“Top player, it was a great finish from the corner and a great delivery in.

“It was nice to get the early goal, it would have been nice if we had settled down a little bit, I know we had a couple of chances, the goalkeeper made a great save from Rachel Doyle and then Carla hits the inside of the post with a cracking effort.

“We could have been a bit more comfortable but that was a really tough game and Athlone are a really good side and they showed that today.”

Athlone Town managed to get on top of DLR Waves for much of the game, particularly in the second half and Kelly did have his concerns that they might not come away with the win.

“I was worried, they had a really good spell in that second half where they were on top and that’s why we made the changes.

“The big thing about the squad we have is, when we make changes that they are game changers, they bring energy to us.

“They’re top players, I’m delighted with the squad, we saw it there today, we made four changes and all of a sudden we get that energy and we take control for spells as well.”

League report: @AthloneTownAFC 0-1 @DLRWaveshttps://t.co/jkWdO9ma6kpic.twitter.com/xVU8D3GXpF

— Extratime.com (@ExtratimeNews) May 16, 2021