After a disappointing start to the week back home where the Irish women were beaten by Finland in their opening European Championship qualifier, Niamh Fahey can finish it on a high if Chelsea wrap up their first ever Super League title on Sunday evening.

The Londoners head to Widnes where Liverpool await (Kick-off 7.30, live on BT Sport) and if Manchester City slip up against Bristol Academy in the afternoon then, with two points currently separating the sides and one more round of games to come, the Galwaywoman will be a win away from a fifth English title winner’s medal, her third of the Super League era.

If City, who have the slightly easier run in, win then the pressure on Chelsea to take three points will be even greater although Fahey believes that the club's FA Cup success at the start of August has eased the burden of expectation on a group assembled to deliver success over the coming seasons.

“Of course there is still pressure and expectation,” she says, “but I think winning the FA Cup has helped. The club probably see that as representing progress in that it was a first real piece of silverware and now winning the league would be a bonus. Obviously everyone wants to win the league, absolutely, but I think the cup success has just helped a bit in terms of the pressure to deliver again.”

From both a personal and team perspective, Fahey says, the season has lived up to expectations so far with the 27 year-old, who signed from Arsenal in the close season in order to train full-time, having played more minutes for the league leaders than any of her team mates. Now, with the double looking doable, she is anxious that nobody lets up quite yet.

“Yeah, it’s been positive. The FA Cup win was great and we have a couple of games now standing between us and the league title .We can’t slip up, though. I don’t think City will drop any points and so I think we have to win our two games too. It’s in our hands but it’s too tight for comfort. That’s okay, though. It makes it interesting.

“We had a nil nil at home earlier in the season (with Liverpool) and they’re generally quite tight games. But they’ll have a go hopefully. They’re mid table and have nothing to lose, so they’ll want to beat us and that will give us an opportunity to have a go back at them.”

Chelsea will also start their Champions League campaign, against Glasgow City, over the coming weeks but the summer season in England means that there will be long gaps between some games and a lot of time to be killed; something she has struggled slightly with since turning pro.

“It’s been great really,” she says, “I couldn’t have asked for more in terms of making the switch. I’ve enjoyed not having to worry about work and being able to train full-time and I’ve benefited from all the rest and recuperation. I’ve found the time difficult to cope with, though.

“I see now what that guy (Stephen Hunt) was on about when he said the GAA players wouldn’t be able to cope with all the time off. From my end, there’s only so much Netflix you can watch.

“I was having a look at things that I could do (college courses) and I ended up talking to the company where I used to work (doing research and development in the scientific field) about coming back one day a week. It’ll be fine in terms of the football, it’ll only be 40 hours a month and it will help me keep my skills up. I have an interest in the work so I’m glad to have the opportunity to keep my hand in.”

The sparse match schedule over the months ahead is, she says, “the one drawback in terms of our summer season but we’ll continue training and people have international games in October and November which will help too. Beyond that, I think we have a big break from the end of November on which is something to look forward to.”

In Ireland’s case, the international games involve qualifying fixtures against Portugal and Spain which have both become that little bit more important in the wake of the Finnish defeat. Fahey, though, is anxious to avoid getting too carried away about that.

“It was a bit of a sickener, getting off to a start like that and it was frustrating, because we should really have gotten something out of the game but then it’s a bit crazy too that it had been built up to almost being a must win game when it was only the start.

“Finland will feel good that they’ve beaten a team that they’ll see as one of their main rivals for qualification but there’s a long way to go and next month we’ll have an opportunity to put some of Monday’s wrongs to right.”

And there were, she says, some reasons to take encouragement: “Katie (McCabe) was definitely one of the positives to come out of it all. It’s hard to make that step up from the under-19s. People talk about bringing players through from that level because our teams have done well, but it’s a massive gap and yet Katie showed she could cope; she was our biggest threat for most of the game and her performance suggested what a great career she can over the years ahead.”