Colin Bell wants Ireland’s senior women’s team 'to cause an upset’

Manager Colin Bell is confident Ireland’s senior women’s team can continue to confound predictions in their back to back home World Cup qualifiers against Slovakia on Friday and the Netherlands next Tuesday.

The Girls In Green, who are looking to make history by qualifying for a major tournament for the first time, got their campaign off to a flying start last year, with wins away to Northern Ireland and Slovakia and a celebrated scoreless draw away to European champions Holland.

“This is a very important phase but all the games so far have been important to get us into this position,” said Bell yesterday, at the announcement of Aviva as sponsors of the team for the next three years.

“It’s going to be an exciting challenge, these two matches, against a team that is very close to us, Slovakia, and a team who are the European champions and theoretically light years ahead of us.

“I have to keep reiterating that we are total outsiders in this group. We have Norway and Holland in the group – Norway, ex-European champions, Holland current European champions, both teams with world-class players. So I think we can enjoy that role but also have this expectation that we want to cause an upset and give as good an account of ourselves as possible.”

While Ireland are entitled to take heart from having already beaten Slovakia 2-0 on the opposition’s home patch, Bell said it had still been a tough match for his team. And he’s not expecting much different in Tallaght on Friday.

“Slovakia had more possession but we soaked it up, sat back and caught them on the break,” he said.

“For that evening, I think it was the right thing to do. We kept them out, they didn’t have one goalscoring chance in the 90 minutes. So we have to be prepared that, on Friday, they may let us come a little bit and try to get us on the counter-attack, thinking that because we’re at home all of a sudden things start to change in players’ heads or we change something. Which I don ‘t agree with. For me, nothing changes. If we play all our games in Ireland or play all our games away from home, it doesn’t really matter to me. I just want to win every game.”

Which will, by definition, mean the players creating and converting whatever chances come their way in Tallaght.

“That’s definitely a situation we need to improve on,” he conceded. “We need to create more chances and when they do come we need to take them. I was very pleased with the second game in Portugal (a 3-1 win for the Irish in a friendly in January) where we created three really good goals and finished them off. And that’s what we’re looking for, that’s what we need. It’s basically about trying to find the right balance between attacking and defending.

“I was very pleased with the Portugal camp and very pleased with the camp in Cork. So we’ve done a lot of work, a lot of tactical work on and off the pitch, and now it’s just time for the girls to be let loose.”

Meanwhile, with today marking the first anniversary of the senior women’s squad going public in their dispute with the FAI last year, Bell and captain Katie McCabe yesterday sought to pour cold water on a report suggesting fresh tensions had erupted over payment for their recent training camp in Cork, during which the players received a €50 per diem but no match fee for a game against Cork City’s U15 boys.

“There is no dispute,” said Bell. “I was totally surprised this story came up. Everyone is on the same page. Everybody knew that this was a training game and there was never an expectation to be paid for a training session against Cork’s U15 boys. It’s absolutely laughable.”

McCabe maintained the matter had been clarified ahead of the training camp.

“It was all discussed, all communicated, as it usually is, and to be back answering these questions is a bit annoying,” she said.

“There are no distractions at all. This [yesterday’s Aviva announcement and media event] is the only distraction, when we get pulled out of camp, but this is all for the good of the women’s game, which is what we want, to compete with these nations. And I want some bragging rights against my Dutch team-mates at Arsenal on Tuesday.

“Our sole focus here is on getting results on the pitch and putting in performances in Tallaght on Friday and Tuesday. In regard to the other situation there is no problem.”