Aoibheann Costello has seen it all. Progressing through the ranks in the grassroots system, a transition to a new footballing club identity, All-Island Cup victories, and leading her teammates out at Eamonn Deacy Park.
After two successive third placed finishes, United look ready to take that next title-winning step. Over a third of the way into the 2026 Premier Division season and the Tribeswomen sit three points clear of defending champions Athlone Town and five points to the good of Shelbourne on top.
Unbeaten in all competitions, the joint-best defensive record in the league, free-flowing football, and comeback victories have been the hallmark of Phil Trill’s team so far this season.
Last weekend’s dramatic 2-1 comeback win against Athlone Town in front of a bumper Eamonn Deacy Park typifies this budding team and places their title credentials to the forefront of their competitors’ minds. But joint vice-captain Costello speaks for her team when she affirms they are not getting ahead of themselves. The focus remains one game at a time.
“The only thing we can do at the moment is actually take this week, train hard this week, play well at the weekend, and then do the same thing next week, because if you look too far ahead, you’re just gonna crumble,” she explains.
“It’s what we all want [winning the league], but we’re never going into a game saying we have to win this game to win the league. It’s purely this is what we have to do, this is your role, this is what we have to do, let’s get through it.
“It’s only May. This season doesn’t end till October. So many things can happen, it’s unpredictable.”
It speaks to the team culture that Trill has instilled since he became the first manager of Galway United’s senior women’s team in 2023, a journey Costello has been on the whole way. The Milltown woman believes the team maturing together, as well as key recruits in the last couple of years have laid the foundations for United to go from title race observers to challengers.
“Everyone has bought into the culture,” she outlines, “I think we’re quite a unique group personality-wise. Everyone is completely different, but everyone is completely authentic, and we just gel together quite well as a group.”
Complete harmony is rare within elite, competitive sporting environments. Every player wants to play and believes they should be in the starting XI. It is that competitive edge that drives players to the top level in the first place. But Costello is adamant the current competition for places and the team spirit is driving this team to new heights.
“No negativity, no bad egg within the group, whether you’re playing or not playing, you’re boosting each other,” says Costello.
“Everyone has the same goal within the group. We’ve always said it’s not going to take 11 to get to where we want to go, it’s going to take the full squad and backroom staff.
“I know it’s kind of like a cliche, but whether you are playing or not playing, you genuinely do play a huge part. I really do think that we know that it’s going to take more than just 11 to get to where we want to go.”
Leadership
Speaking to Costello and it’s easy to see why she has donned the captain’s armband for her club on so many occasions at such a young age. In her typical modest fashion, she is quick to point out that the United team is full of leaders. She believes that everyone in the squad contributes as leaders in different ways, whether that be speaking in front of the group, performing on the pitch, how people live their lives, or just general application to training.
Her leadership style is constantly evolving. She credits the likes of Amanda McQuillan, Niamh Farrelly, and Lynsey McKey, who are always giving her snippets of advice. Being part of a leadership group consisting of years of experience both in the League of Ireland and abroad, as well as experience of lifting silverware, may lead to a 21-year-old player still learning their trade experiencing impostor syndrome.
But Costello admits that personal accolades such as her nomination on last season’s Women’s Premier Division Team of the Season and being awarded the league’s player of the month award for March this season, as well as a positional change and increased responsibility on the pitch has given her the confidence to lead from the front.
There is another sub-plot to this, though. She has lived and breathed soccer in Galway – the highs and the lows. From Miltown, she has played soccer the whole way up through the ranks. She played underage for Galway WFC before their transition to Galway United Women in 2023. Seeing how far the club has come and leading the team out at Eamonn Deacy Park means everything to her.
Inspiring
United’s number two represents a pathway for all aspiring female footballers in the county. She recognises that, although there is still serious progress to be made, the game is growing locally and nationally. Her and her teammates’ success play a major role in that.
“When I was growing up, soccer wasn’t really the huge thing. Where I’m from in Milltown as well, it was always the GAA, women’s soccer was never kind of the main sport that a young girl would go into.
“But on Saturday night [after the game against Athlone Town], a girl came up to me, and she said, ‘We travelled from just outside Mullingar to come to the game because we met you in the plaza two weeks ago’.
“To travel from just outside Mullingar and to be still there at 10 o’clock, when the game had finished, and be out on the pitch, asking for pictures and signatures, like that’s obviously something she’s gonna remember. She’s gonna see that, and see the crowd, and remember the atmosphere, and feel the energy, and that’s gonna stick with her.
“Sometimes you forget that you actually do have such an impact on young girls, and I know it’s cringy and cliche, but if they genuinely can see it, they can believe it,” she exclaims.
Growing the game
The growth of the women’s game is there for all to see. More television coverage through the likes of TG4, and social media content makes the League of Ireland accessible for all audiences. Galway United consistently push their women’s team on social media platforms, and often run ticketing promotions to get more support down to Terryland.
Costello admits that walking out to a few hundred fans on a Saturday can be disheartening, but believes that “people invest in people”. The club are putting in effort to get players out into the communities and meeting people face-to-face, so that the people of Galway invest their time into this team.
“It’s just getting people in the gates, that’s something we kind of struggle with. I think all League of Ireland teams do as well.
“We’re trying to grow and grow and grow, and I suppose that’s one thing we’re trying to do as a team, is get out to the communities and see people and introduce ourselves, because, people invest in people.”
The appetite is there. The growth in the Irish women’s team in the last few years epitomises that. Costello is a beacon of hope of what can be achieved for the young female soccer player in Galway.
Costello, who balances her soccer career with studying to be a secondary school teacher, has aspirations of going to the very top.
Just like the young soccer stars will point to her pathway, she sees the likes of Shelbourne’s Aoibheann Clancy and Aoibhe Brennan of Bohemians who have gained international call-ups as evidence she can one day pull on the esteemed green jersey.
“To play at the top level will be something that I’d aspire to, obviously an international call-up would be something in the future. But at the moment, I’m not going to get too far ahead of myself.”
Pathways are so integral in sport, it’s seeing that there is the light at the end of the tunnel, and your dreams are achievable.
For the girl from Milltown who grew up in a county where soccer wasn’t the done thing for young women, Aoibheann Costello has quietly become the role model she never had. She understands that every goal scored, every signature given, and every trip to Eamonn Deacy Park on a Saturday night is another girl being shown what is possible.
A league title may come or it may not. The green jersey may come in time. But the pathway Costello is laying down for the next generation is already being built, one game at a time.
