![\"Becky](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/0024b7d2-614.jpg\"\/)
\nBecky Watkins, centre, celebrates with Aoife Kelly after scoring Shelbourne side’s first goal<\/p>\n
Shelbourne 2-0 Galway United<\/p>\n
Shelbourne dug deep to overcome 10-player Galway United’s to earn their first ever All-Island Cup title.<\/p>\n
A bumper crowd 1,368 were treated to an enthralling encounter that saw the previously unbeaten Galway United fall at the final hurdle in their bid for a hat-trick of wins in the competition as second half goals from Becky Watkins and Pearl Slattery proved the difference.<\/p>\n
Phil Trill’s unbeaten side have tasted victory just once in their last eight meetings with the Reds, with the last clash a bruising 0-0 war at Tolka Park and this was no different as tackles flew in on the sun soaked surface.<\/p>\n
Before the game fell into any sort of pattern the home side could have grabbed the lead in the opening 10-minutes when skipper Slattery saw her header scrape the outside of the post from Aoibheann Clancy.<\/p>\n
Minutes later the drum-bashing away support saw their side go close when Aoibheann Costello saw a header of her own drift wide.<\/p>\n
\nBecky Watkins, centre, celebrates with Aoife Kelly after scoring Shelbourne side’s first goal<\/p>\n
Clancy’s quality set piece deliveries were causing all sorts of trouble for the Tribeswomen and should really have added an assist to her name when she found the competition’s top scorer ,Becky Watkins, who failed to hit the target from just a couple of yards out.<\/p>\n
Both teams continued to go blow-for-blow in a relentless first half and up next was right winger Aoibheann Donnelly who tried her luck from 30-yards out but saw her shot sail just over Mya Sanches\u2019 crossbar.<\/p>\n
Missing Maeve Wollmer and with Leah Doyle fit enough for the bench, Sean Russel\u2019s new look left side of Olivia Damico and Keeva Keenan worked well in tandem to deny the dangerous Donnelly further space.<\/p>\n
It was going to take something special to break the deadlock between the two heavyweights, and it came from the opposite side, when Watkins made up for her earlier miss, by picking the ball up on the right cutting inside and unleashing a wonderstrike into the far top corner – for her seventh of the competition – giving former Shels stopper Amanda McQuillan no chance.<\/p>\n
The Galway boss had hinted at a surprise inclusion in the matchday squad coming in the shape of the impressive Remi Tillotson, who had last featured on the 30th of May with doubts surrounding her return since that clash with DLR, and the American was called upon moments after the concession.<\/p>\n
The visitors were beginning to look more of a threat in the final third as they chased the equaliser. Hotshot Emma Doherty showed great movement inside the area to find a yard but on the stretch could only poke the ball towards goal.<\/p>\n
And with a quarter of an hour remaining Doherty thought she had levelled when latching onto Donnelly\u2019s through ball but had strayed just a yard offside before finishing into the bottom corner.<\/p>\n
![\"Pearl](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/0024b7d3-614.jpg\"\/)
\nShelbourne captain Pearl Slattery headed in the second goal<\/p>\n
Having seen a goal disallowed for a narrow offside, uproar followed from the visitors bench when Shels doubled their lead just minutes later.<\/p>\n
Alex Kavanagh did well to recycle a set piece, looping the ball high back into the area. Slattery looked just onside beside Tillotson but Watkins looked ahead of the play.<\/p>\n
But it was the Reds stalwart Slattery who looped her head to double their lead.<\/p>\n
Incensed by the offside decision, that may have included some frustration over a potential push by Slattery in the build up to the goal, McQuillan then raced over to remonstrate with the linesman but took things too far and received her marching orders.<\/p>\n
It was a frustrating end for the visitors who battled throughout but can now refocus on their title tilt and FAI Cup journey, as Shels held out to get their hands on the trophy that had eluded their cabinet up until tonight.<\/p>\n
Shelbourne: Mya Sanches; Jess Gargan (Nia Hannon, 83′), Pearl Slattery, Maggie Pierce, Keeva Keenan; Alex Kavanagh, Abbie Clancy, Aoife Kelly (Rachel Graham, 79\u2019); Becky Watkins, Olivia Damico (Leah Doyle, 64\u2019), Halle Harcourt (Brie Severns, 83\u2019)<\/p>\n
Galway United: Amanda McQuillan; Aoibhin Donnelly, Niamh Cotter (Aislinn Meaney, 82\u2019), Aoibheann Costello, Lucy Jayne Grant; Eve Dossen, Niamh Farrelly, Isabella Beletic; Cara Griffin (Nicole Nix, 79\u2019), Abbie Callanan (Remini Tillotson, 64\u2019) Emma Doherty<\/p>\n
Referee: Glen Geraghty<\/p>\n
Watch every game of the FIFA 2026 World Cup live on RT\u00c92 and RT\u00c9 Player with highlights on RT\u00c9 Sport digital platforms and live blogs on RT\u00c9.ie\/sport and RT\u00c9 News app<\/p>\n
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Listen to the RT\u00c9 Soccer podcast on Apple Podcasts<\/a>, Spotify<\/a> or wherever you get your podcasts<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Shelbourne 2-0 Galway United Shelbourne dug deep to overcome 10-player Galway United’s to earn their first ever All-Island…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":556853,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[61,60,112],"class_list":["post-556852","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/556852","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=556852"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/556852\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/556853"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=556852"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=556852"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=556852"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}