The very best ‘Irish abroad’ news from the weekend came from London where Jess Ziu made her first competitive appearance for West Ham since she suffered an anterior cruciate ligament injury 13 months ago, the Dubliner coming on in the closing minutes of her side’s WSL game against Bristol City.
There was, though, no happy ending for Ziu or West Ham, for whom Izzy Atkinson started. Bristol picked up their first win of the season, Megan Connolly creating their winner with a free-kick that Brooke Aspin headed home for a 3-2 victory.
The stand-out performance of the weekend came from Courtney Brosnan who was exceptional in Everton’s 1-1 draw away to in-form Spurs, making 10 saves in the course of the game that saw Heather Payne win the late penalty that earned their side the draw. Megan Campbell also saw some game time for Everton, coming on for the last 10 minutes.
Katie McCabe, making her 200th appearance for Arsenal, set up her side’s winner when she played Stina Blackstenius through three minutes from time, the Swede capitalising on Manchester City goalkeeper Khiara Keating allowing the Irish captain’s long ball bounce over her head.
The only downside to McCabe’s day was that she picked up a yellow card. By The Athletic’s Caoimhe O’Neill’s calculation, that puts her on 26 since she made her WSL debut in April 2016 – four more than her, eh, nearest rival. Only one red card in that time, though – as O’Neill put it, “she’s made playing on a booking an art form”.
Meanwhile in the Championship, Ireland’s Birmingham City crew had a happy time of it, beating Reading 2-1 to lift them to fifth in the table after a ropey start to the season. Jamie Finn, Lucy Quinn and Lily Agg all featured in the starting eleven, but Louise Quinn was left on the bench for the third game running.
No joy either for Tyler Toland, her Blackburn side losing 3-0 at home to London City Lionesses, all the goals coming in a calamitous first 19 minutes, Grace Moloney keeping a clean sheet. And in Scotland, neither Abbie Larkin nor Emily Whelan could help Glasgow City break the deadlock in a scoreless draw away to Hearts, a result that leaves them eight points adrift of league leaders Rangers.
