Bonagee’s first adventure in FAI Women's Cup feels like a familiar journey

In some ways it’s a journey they’ve never embarked on before. In others, it’s one they’re pretty familiar with.

Bonagee United are competing in the EVOKE.ie FAI Women's Cup for the first time in their history in a first round tie away to Cork City of the FAI Women's National League at Turner’s Cross on Sunday.

Chris McNulty’s side qualified for the senior cup as a consequence of their appearance in the last four of the FAI Women’s Intermediate Cup, where they also travelled to Cork just two weeks ago to face Douglas Hall at Moneygourney.

“Although the trip to Cork - or indeed two trips to Cork - in a fortnight is a logistical nightmare for the club, it was great for the group to have two full days together,” McNulty said. “It was good for team spirit, especially when you consider the complexities of Covid over the last couple of years and even staging a club presentation night then wasn’t the norm. So the trip was good in the fact we were in a more relaxed environment.

“Usually it’s training, matches and meetings, so it was good for the group as a whole and now we are away again. When the club heard of a second trip they didn’t so much as blink. The women’s team is very much part of the club and are treated very much as equals. They believe in what we’re doing and I can only thank them for that.”

After a night at the Viking Hotel in Waterford, Kara Lacey opened the scoring for Douglas Hall, before Natalie McFadden levelled it up for the Dry Arch Park side

Carrissa Murphy edged the hosts into a 2-1 lead at half-time, with a 42nd minute goal. Bonagee had plenty of the ball without creating many clear cut chances and pressed late on and were caught twice in injury time with Alison O'Connell giving the scoreboard a more comfortable look, with Douglas Hall running out 4-1 winners.

“The scoreboard probably didn’t reflect the game as we went for it at 2-1 down and ended up losing 4-1,” McNulty added. “But at the same time, we lost 4-1 and you learn from the fact you can’t make mistakes at this level.

“I was listening to a thing with Brian Cody [the Kilkenny senior hurling manager, who last Sunday guided his team to a 17th All-Ireland final] recently and he said that whatever about the hard luck stories, if you lose you didn’t do certain things right and that’s not good enough.

“We didn’t take our chances against Douglas Hall and we got punished. For the most part, I felt we competed well and didn’t look out of place at that level.”

An indicator of the investment in the team was the fact Denise McElhinney, who works as an operations manager for the FAI, left the Ireland Women’s National Team camp in Turkey before their Women's World Cup qualifier in Georgia to be with the Bonagee side a fortnight ago. Since then, Eimear Sweeney has been added to Bonagee’s ranks.

McNulty is also assisted by Fanad United FAI Intermediate Cup winning goalkeeper Bosco Gallagher, with Emma Doherty and Chantelle Grant also on the management team and Mickey McGlynn is the team physio.

With Pike Rovers coming to Dry Arch Cup in the first round of the FAI Cup on July 31, it’s the first time a non-league club has managed to get its men's and women’s sides into both senior cups in the same season.

And while Jason Gibson’s Ulster Senior League outfit are essentially in the off-season, for Bonagee they’re right in the mix in the Donegal Women’s League, currently three points behind leaders Lagan Harps. However, with a game in hand and the Manorcunningham side still to play, it means the destination of the title is still in Bonagee’s hands.

On Monday night, McNulty’s team showed their prowess with a 9-0 win over Drumbar United, with Bronagh Gallagher hitting four goals and Caoimhne Heron bagging a hat-trick.

Last Saturday, McNulty made the trip to the Athlone Town Stadium, where Cork City went down 1-0 to Athlone Town in the Women's National League. The result means the Leesiders are second from bottom now, with three wins and 12 defeats from their 15 outings. Danny Murphy, the former Cork City midfielder, is in charge.

“Cork City are a senior club and one of the best run clubs in the country,” McNulty added. “Danny Murphy is in charge there and you can see it’s clearly a good set-up. They are well set-up, disciplined, well coached and have a good level of fitness.

“People ask me ‘whether it's a bonus’ for us to get into the senior cup but I don’t see it like that. We’ve earned the right with our performances in the Intermediate Cup, so we are here on merit. On Sunday all we want to do is do ourselves justice and we can see where that takes us. There’s different ways to approach a given game but we’re not going to park the bus.

“Maybe doing that shows a weakness and a lack of faith in what you’re doing. We’ve ways of playing and adaptations of that, so we won’t be tearing up the script just because we’re playing a senior club.”

Bonagee United squad: Niamh Mailey, Catherine Fletcher, Aleysia Alcorn, Siobhan Sweeney, Amy Thompson, Caitlin Hume, Eimear Sweeney, Coilín Hume, Kaneshia McKinney, Shannon McBride, Ava Doherty, Ciana Brogan, Hannah Hopkins, Amy Callaghan, Eva Harvey, Kelsee Fay, Amanda Callaghan, Keri Sweeney, Julie McCloy, Natalie McFadden, Deborah Kerrigan, Caoimhne Heron, Gabrielle O’Donnell, Lauren Harper, Bronagh Gallagher.