Greencastle FC face Home Farm tomorrow at 12 noon in the WFAI Under-18 Cup semi-final.
It’s a busy day for the Greeks, with the senior men’s team taking on Peake Villa in the FAI Junior Cup at Chapel Lane and the reserves to face Moville in the morning at Bayfield.
Greencastle’s U18 ladies have to use The Warren, home of Carrowmena, as the venue for the semi-final.
It’s the fourth year in succession that this Greencastle side has been to a national semi-final.
“We’re facing a tough battle and it’s disappointing we can’t use Chapel Lane because we’re hard to beat there,” says Greencastle boss Paddy Keys.
“I want to appeal for people to come out and support us. Unfortunately, our support is split with so many games on at the same time.
“We have a good hardcore support in the club, but there are people out there who’ll want to see all the club’s teams”
Greencastle have had a superb run of producing talented players, including the likes of Republic of Ireland international Roma McLaughlin, whose talents were honed at Chapel Lane.
“We have a great group of girls here and it’s hard to believe we’re still producing top players,” Keys says.
However, such talent comes with a price, too, for Greencastle.
“Players are under a lot of pressure from senior clubs like Derry City and Sion Swifts,” the Greeks’ boss says.
“It’s disappointing you go to great lengths developing players and these teams come in for them. We have written to the FAI about it, but they don’t sem to want to know anything about it.”
The likes of Kate McClenaghan, Meghan Havlin and Danielle McLaughlin have been key for Greencastle in their march to the final.
For their last game, Greencastle had only nine players, but overcame Ballina 9-2 away from home and now they hope to take their next step and reach a first final.
Keys says: “It’s more to do with girls who are here and their attitude. We have a small squad and that attitude is hard to beat.”
