Shelbourne F.C. (women)

Shelbourne Football Club (Irish: Cumann Peile Shíol Bhroin) is an Irish association football club based in Northside, Dublin. It is the women's section of the League of Ireland club Shelbourne FC. The senior women's team currently plays in the Women's National League. They have also fielded teams in the Dublin Women's Soccer League, the Metropolitan Girls League and the North Dublin Schoolboys/Girls League.

Shelbourne F.C.

Full name	Shelbourne Football Club
Nickname(s)	Shels The Red Army^[1]
Founded	1971; 53 years ago (1971) (as Welsox) 1995; 29 years ago (1995) 2007 (re-founded)
Ground	Tolka Park
Capacity	4,400
Chairman	Andrew Doyle
Manager	Eoin Wearen
League	Women's National League
2023	2nd
Website	Club website
Home colours Away colours
Current season

History

1990s

In 1995 Shelbourne F.C. took over the women's football club Welsox F.C.. Welsox played in both the Civil Service League and the Dublin Women's Soccer League and had won the FAI Women's Cup in both 1992 and 1994. They were also DWSL runners-up in 1995. After coming under the Shelbourne umbrella, they also finished as FAI Women's Cup runners-up in 1997 and 1999 and were DWSL runners-up in 1998, 1999 and 2000. Future Republic of Ireland women's national football team manager Susan Ronan played for both Welsox and Shelbourne during this era. Following its integration into Shelbourne, the club was administered mainly, though not exclusively, by women on a voluntary basis while it received financial and logistical support from the men's club. However, in 2002, following a change in management and coaching staff, the original Shelbourne Ladies team disbanded and a core group of players moved to Templeogue United to merge with an existing girls' team.^{[2][3][4][5][6][7][8]}

Revival

After a five-year period of inactivity, Shelbourne Women's F.C. was revived in 2007 by Mick Neville, then serving as a director of coaching at Shelbourne F.C., and coach Keith O'Neill. The club initially fielded schoolgirl teams in the North Dublin Schoolboys/girls League before also joining the Metropolitan Girls League and the Dublin Women's Soccer League.^[8][9][10]

Women's National League

In 2015 Shelbourne Ladies merged with Raheny United's senior women's team. This effectively saw Shelbourne Ladies takeover Raheny United's place in the Women's National League.^[11] During the subsequent 2015–16 season, Shelbourne Ladies finished as runners-up in FAI Women's Cup, the WNL Shield and the Women's National League. All three competitions were won by Wexford Youths.^[12][13][14] However Shelbourne Ladies did win the WNL Cup after defeating UCD Waves 3–2 in the final at Richmond Park on 1 May 2016.^[15] In 2016 Shelbourne won the FAI Women's Cup after defeating Wexford Youths 5–0 in the final.^[16] The most notable individual performance to come out of the game was undoubtedly that of Shels' Leanne Kiernan, who scored a hat-trick and picked up the 'player of the match' award for her efforts.^[17]

The team won their first league championship when they finished the shortened 2016 season in first place.^[18] They qualified for the 2017–18 UEFA Women's Champions League with that title. In March 2019 Shelbourne announced a number of steps intended to boost "equality and parity of esteem for all of our players". They dropped the word Ladies from the women's team's name and moved WNL home games from the AUL Complex to the main stadium at Tolka Park.^[19]

Shelbourne Women U18

Shelbourne Women U18 won the 2015 WFAI Intermediate Cup, defeating St Catherine's 6–0 in the final.^[20] Shelbourne Women U18 also reached the semi-finals of the 2015 FAI Women's Cup, defeating two members of the Women's National League along the way.^[21] In the last sixteen they defeated Cork City 3–2^[22] and in the quarter-finals they won 4–0 against Castlebar Celtic. In the semi-final they lost 4–0 to the Shelbourne Women senior team. ^[23]

Grounds

Shelbourne Women's National League team play their home games at Tolka Park. They played their home games in 2018 at AUL Complex. They formerly played at Morton Stadium from 2015 to 2017. The club's junior teams play at the AUL Complex.^[8]

Players

Current squad

As of 28 February 2022.^[24]

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Pos. Nation Player 3 DF   IRL Jessie Stapleton 4 DF   IRL Pearl Slattery (captain) 5 DF   IRL Shauna Fox 6 MF   IRL Alex Kavanagh 8 DF   IRL Rachel Graham 10 FW   IRL Noelle Murray 11 MF   IRL Megan Smyth-Lynch 12 MF   IRL Keeva Keenan

No. Pos. Nation Player 13 DF   IRL Leah Doyle 15 FW   IRL Jemma Quinn 16 FW   IRL Lia O'Leary 17 FW   IRL Taylor White 18 MF   IRL Aoife Kelly 19 MF   IRL Kate O'Dowd 20 GK   IRL Amanda McQuillan 22 FW   USA Gloria Douglas — MF   USA Heather O'Reilly — MF   USA Emma Starr — DF   USA Isabelle Glennon — GK   IRL Courtney Maguire

Former players

For a list of all former and current Shelbourne players with a Wikipedia article, see Category:Shelbourne F.C. (women) players.

Honours

Shelbourne

• Women's National League
  • Winners: 2016, 2021, 2022 3
  • Runners-up: 2015–16, 2018, 2023
• FAI Women's Cup
  • Winners: 2016, 2022: 2
  • Runners-up: 1997, 1999, 2015, 2021, 2023: 5
• WNL Cup
  • Winners: 2016, 2017
• Dublin Women's Soccer League
  • Winners: 2015: 1
  • Runners-up: 1998, 1999, 2000: 3
• WNL Shield
  • Runners-up: 2015

Welsox

• Dublin Women's Soccer League
  • Runners-up: 1995: 1
• FAI Women's Cup
  • Winners: 1992, 1994: 2

Source:^{[4][5][9][16]}

References

1. "Dublin derby set for Continental Tyres WNL Cup Final". fai.ie. 14 May 2016. Retrieved 9 June 2016.
2. "EL Clubs with Women's teams". foot.ie. 14 February 2016. Retrieved 14 February 2016.
3. "Susan Ronan appointed Women's Senior Head Coach". fai.ie. 14 October 2010. Retrieved 8 June 2016.
4. "Ireland – List of Women Champions". Rec.Sport.Soccer Statistics Foundation. Retrieved 24 February 2016.
5. "Ireland – List of Women Cup Winners". Rec.Sport.Soccer Statistics Foundation. Retrieved 17 September 2011.
6. Kausik Bandyopadhyay, Sabyasachi Mallick (2008). Fringe Nations in World Soccer. Routledge.
7. Fan Hong, J. A. Mangan (2004). Soccer, Women, Sexual Liberation: Kicking Off a New Era. Frank Cass Publishers.
8. "About us!". shelbournelfc.ie. Retrieved 8 June 2016.
9. "Roll of Honour!". shelbournelfc.ie. Retrieved 8 June 2016.
10. "Clubs". metgirlsleague.com. Retrieved 8 June 2016.
11. "Rahney United & Shelbourne Ladies merge". wnl.fai.ie. 19 June 2015. Retrieved 3 January 2016.
12. "Wexford win first ever FAI Women's Cup final on penalties". The Irish Times. 8 November 2015.
13. "Wexford edge Shels in WNL Shield Final". wnl.fai.ie. 30 March 2016. Retrieved 13 May 2016.
14. "WNL Play-off Report: Shelbourne Ladies 1–2 Wexford Youths Women". extratime.ie. 22 May 2016.
15. "Shelbourne Ladies win Continental Tyres WNL Cup". fai.ie. 15 May 2016. Retrieved 18 May 2016.
16. "Five-star Shelbourne turn on the style to win FAI Women's Cup". The Irish Independent. 6 November 2016.
17. Cahill, Conall. "Leanne Kiernan Showed Today Why She Might Be The Next Star of Irish Football | Balls.ie". Balls.ie. Retrieved 29 November 2016.
18. "Shelbourne Ladies wrap up league title". RTÉ Sport. 30 November 2016. Retrieved 16 September 2020.
19. Farrell, Sinead (12 March 2019). "Shelbourne drop 'Ladies' from women's team name in bid to achieve equality for all players". The 42.ie. Retrieved 16 September 2020.
20. "Shelbourne U18 win FAI Women's Umbro Intermediate Cup". fai.ie. 30 September 2015. Retrieved 8 June 2016.
21. "Shelbourne Ladies U18 2015–2016". wnl.ie. Retrieved 8 June 2016.
22. "WFAI Cup: Shelbourne Ladies U18 3–2 Cork City Women's FC". wnl.ie. 29 August 2015. Retrieved 9 June 2016.
23. "WFAI Cup Semi-final Report: Shels Ladies 4–0 Shels U18". wnl.ie. 19 October 2015. Retrieved 8 June 2016.
24. "Your 2022 Shels Squad". twitter.com. Shelbourne FC. 28 February 2022.