There’ll be no shortage of Irish interest in next month’s quarter-finals of the English FA Cup, with 11 Republic of Ireland players in all seeing their clubs advance to the last eight after victories on Sunday.
Having made her Irish debut against China on Wednesday, Aoife Mannion completed a memorable week by featuring in her first competitive game for Manchester United in a year, having spent that spell recovering from an anterior cruciate ligament injury. She came on for the last 15 minutes of United’s 5-0 win over Durham.
Four more of Vera Pauw’s squad had a happy day of it in Birmingham City’s 1-0 extra-time win away to Charlton, Louise Quinn, Jamie Finn, Harriet Scott and Lucy Quinn all starting in the game, while goalkeeper Grace Moloney and substitute Diane Caldwell played their part in Reading’s penalty shoot-out win over Spurs.
Stress-free afternoon
Like Reading, this season’s Super League campaign has been a struggle for Brighton, both teams in the bottom three, but they had a stress-free afternoon against bottom-of-the Championship Coventry, winning 5-0. Megan Connolly kept them ticking over in midfield, but Megan Walsh watched from the bench, Australian goalkeeper Lydia Williams still keeping her out of the side.
Ruesha Littlejohn also remained on the bench on Sunday, from where she saw her Aston Villa side beat West Ham 7-6 on penalties after a 1-1 draw, Izzy Atkinson having made an impact for the London club when she came on to create their equaliser in injury time.
Lewes, meanwhile, reached the quarter-finals for the first time in their history, beating fourth-tier Cardiff, the only amateur team left in the competition, 6-1 at their Dripping Pan ground. Or the Pan Siro, as they’ve dubbed it. And they did it without their most prolific striker, Emily Kraft, who missed the game through injury, the German-born player is still hopeful of adding to the cap she won under Colin Bell back in 2019.
On the downside, Katie McCabe had, once again, a close-up look at how useful a player Sam Kerr is, the Australian marking her 100th appearance for Chelsea with, remarkably, her 82nd goal for the club in their 2-0 win over their London rivals.
Kerr only returned to England a couple of days before the tie, having played in three World Cup warm-up games in Australia the previous week, prompting the Chelsea faithful to croon “even with jet lag, she’s better than you”.
Sam Kerr’s qualities
No better woman, then, than the Irish captain to warn her international team-mates of Kerr’s qualities ahead of that World Cup opener in Sydney on July 20th.
The one consolation for McCabe is that she at least started the game, having been dropped to the bench of late, although her versatility must become dizzying for the Dubliner at times — she started on the right side of the front three, and finished at left-back.
Happily, there’s nothing but good news to report from Scotland. Claire O’Riordan was in the Celtic team that saw off the challenge of beloved neighbours Rangers on Friday, 3-0 the margin of their victory, while Clare Walsh and Emily Whelan started for Glasgow City in their 7-0 annihilation of Aberdeen, a result that lifted them three points clear of Celtic at the top of the Scottish Premier League.
And Donegal’s Ciara Grant sent Hearts on their way to a penalty shoot-out win over Edinburgh neighbours Hibs in the Capital Cup, converting the first of their spot-kicks after a 1-1 draw in front of a meaty crowd of 7,024.
But there was no joy for the Republic’s Bundesliga and Serie A representatives, Amber Barrett left on the bench by Potsdam, coming on for the last half-hour of their 3-0 defeat by Bayern Munich.
Farrelly at Parma
Niamh Farrelly’s Parma, meanwhile, lost 2-1 to a star-studded Juventus, second only to Roma in the table, the former Irish under-19 captain creating what proved to be her side’s consolation score 10 minutes from time when Michela Cambiaghi headed home her cross.
The former Peamount United player, who has won two caps thus far under Pauw, left Glasgow City last summer for Italy, hoping to benefit from the quality of football in Serie A. On Sunday she came up against a Juventus side littered with internationals, from Italy, Sweden, the Netherlands and Denmark, and put in a more than decent shift, a fortnight after scoring a long-distance worldie against Sampdoria.
At a time when some late acquirers of Irish passports are being called up to the Irish squad, you’d hope the likes of Farrelly, considering the level she’s playing at, won’t be forgotten.
