Treaty United hit back to earn draw with Cork in Women's National League

TREATY United earned an exciting share of the spoils with Cork City in a hard fought 1-1 draw in their SSE Airtricity Women's Premier Division at the Markets Field on Wednesday night.

Kiara Kilbey's composed finish in the 67th minute helped Alban Hysa's side extend their unbeaten run in the league to two games following their away victory at Sligo Rovers last Saturday.

Treaty United, who sit in ninth-placed in the table, are level on points with Athlone Town in seventh and DLR Waves in eighth.

After a sluggish opening half an hour, the game really sparked into life when Cork City, who were picking up their first point of the campaign in Wednesday night's Munster derby, hit the front in the shortly before half-time through Laura Shine.

Treaty sparked to life after Canadian-born Kilbey equalised at the end of the third quarter, their confidence levels rising as the half wore on.

On another night Treaty might have claimed all three points, but the draw was perhaps the fairest result as City also came close to notching a winner late on.

Treaty United's next fixture in the league is an away date with high-flying Shelbourne on Saturday, April 15.

Unsurprisingly Treaty United manager Hysa gave a vote of confidence to the starting line-up from the 2-1 win over Sligo Rovers four days previous for the visit of the Leesiders to Garryowen.

Neither side managed to create anything by way of a clear goal-scoring opportunity through the opening half an hour.  

Treaty though they had taken the lead after 37 minutes. The impressive Claire Winter created the opening when forcing a turnover of possession inside the Cork half.

Winter then slid a beautifully-weighed pass into the path of Kilbey who finished superbly in the bottom left corner. However, the assistant referee raised his flag to indicate Kilbey was off-side and the goal was disallowed.

Within four minutes visitors Cork City were in front. City broke down the left and when the ball was played in, Laura Shine was on hand to fire the visitors in front.

Cork City maintained their a1-0 dvantage until half-time.

Treaty create a decent opening 15 minutes into that second period when former UCLA Bruins player Winter showed a good turn of pace down the right to get close to the byline. However, her cross was just out of reach for the in-rushing Kilbey.

Canadian-born Kilbey was not to be denied, however, striking for the equaliser in the 66th minute after ghosting in behind the Cork City defence, racing onto Jacqueline Julie Altrogge ball over the top, before producing a composed finish to tie up the game at 1-1.

Kilbey previously played at collegiate level for the University of Victoria Vikes where she grabbed 26 goals and 10 assists across five seasons before making the move to Treaty United this season.

Kilbey then almost had the home side in front, showing great strength to hold off a Cork City defender to create the opening. However, her effort was tipped around the goalpost by City 'keeper Walsh for the expense of a corner which was cleared.

Treaty continued to push for a winner, but were grateful to 'keeper Anne-Marie Ulliac who produced a very smart save to deny the visitors taking the lead in the 87th minute.

Moments later, Ulliac managed to get her fingertips to the ball which collided with the crossbar before being cleared to safety.

TREATY UNITED: Anne-Marie Ulliac, Grace McInerney, Chloe Hennigan, Alannah Mitchell, Ciara McCormack (Capt) (Jacqueline Julie Altrogge, 46), Emma Costelloe, Claire Winter, Kiara Kilbey (Yasmine Saidi 88), Cooper Lee Lane (Emma Deegan 90), Hailey Walsh, Cara Griffin.

CORK CITY: Hannah Walsh, Danielle Burke, Ciara McNamara (Laura Singleton 86), Eva Mangan (Capt), Shaunagh McCarthy, Aoibhin Donnelly (Erika Manfre 76), Laura Shine, Jesse Mendez, Niamh Cotter (Lauren Walsh 76), Anna Costello, Alix Mendez (Ellie O'Brien 67).

REFEREE: Eoghan O'Shea