Women's FAI Cup Final: Katie Keane to help Athlone Town overcome former club Shelbourne

It’s almost a year since Katie Keane made the tough decision to swap Shelbourne for Athlone Town.

As tough as the choice was for the talented young goalkeeper, the reason for the move was simple; she wanted to play first team football.

In fact, the 17-year-old was also told by the former Republic of Ireland manager that if she wanted to earn another call-up to the Irish senior squad, she needed to play more often in the Women’s Premier Division.

“Vera Pauw and Jan Willem [van Ede] were always saying, 'Look, we know that you're at that standard, you need to get your minutes’,” says Keane, who joined up with the Girls in Green for their training camp in Morocco last November.

“Of course, me being me, and being ambitious and competitive, I said, 'D'you know what, might as well.' Ciarán [Kilduff] gave me a ring and gave me an opportunity, I took it and here we are.

“The call-up was such an amazing thing to get like. It was so out of the blue. My mam answered the phone, she was in the kitchen washing her hair at the time, so she had no idea who it was.

“She came straight down to me and was like, 'You're after getting called into camp. Know nothing yet but she'll call me in about two hours, and we'll figure it out.'

“I think it was a Monday morning. It was unbelievable. I was jumping around my kitchen like no tomorrow, in my pyjamas, sure look, you gotta do what you got to do, eh?!

“The feeling going into camp, meeting the likes of Courtney Brosnan, Katie McCabe and all of them at the door and seeing them, it was incredible.

“I was starstruck for a moment, but Courtney gave me a hug and said, 'You've got this'. It gave me that drive to keep going, keep pushing and to never give up. It really does show to all the young girls