After a start to her reign as Republic of Ireland manager that she might want to speedily erase from the memory bank, Carla Ward will, you’d imagine, be looking for some fresh talent to add to her squad for April’s Nations League double-header against Greece.
She played safe enough with her first selection, largely sticking with the tried and trusted of her predecessor Eileen Gleeson’s time in charge. But after Tuesday’s dire display in the 4-0 defeat by Slovenia, it will be interesting to see if she goes bolder next time around.
To that end, perhaps, she attended Saturday’s President’s Cup game between Athlone Town and Shelbourne which featured several of the players who took part in last week’s trial match between the Irish under-19 squad and a development side.
Ward said afterwards that she was impressed by what she saw, and her insistence following the Slovenia humiliation that Ireland are in a “transition” phase certainly pointed towards a desire to blood some rising talent.
Aoibheann Clancy, first called up to the senior Irish squad by Vera Pauw in 2022, did her chances of a recall no harm when she opened the scoring for Shels in their 2-1 win over last season’s league champions, Kate Mooney doubling their lead before Roisín Molloy pulled one back for Athlone from a penalty 15 minutes from time.
Meanwhile, Ward, after just two games, could be about to lose one of her assistant coaches after Amber Whiteley was appointed interim manager of WSL side Liverpool following the sacking of Matt Beard. Whiteley, who had been Beard’s assistant, immediately threw her hat in the ring for the permanent position, so her role with Ireland is now up in the air.
Another of Ward’s team, Emma Byrne, was appointed assistant coach of Championship side Southampton last month, so there’s a distinctly part-time feel to the Irish set-up – although with less than lucrative salaries, it’s not unusual for coaches in the women’s game to combine club and international roles.
Whiteley got her interim spell off to winning start with a 1-0 defeat of Crystal Palace on Sunday, Palace also under new management after the firing of Laura Kaminski last week. Leif Smerud has taken over and gave Abbie Larkin her first WSL start of the season, while Izzy Atkinson was an unused sub. Both players are in desperate need of a fresh start under the Norwegian.
On a more positive note, two Irish internationals laid low by ACL injuries in the last year have taken major steps to a return to action, Jess Ziu back in training with West Ham and Birmingham City’s Jamie Finn playing for the club’s academy side last week.
And Lucy Quinn and Amber Barrett had a successful weekend, Quinn scoring both Birmingham’s goals in their win over Blackburn to keep them top of the Championships, and Barrett making it eight goals in her last eight games for Standard Liege in their draw with Genk.
