Stephanie Roche: ’We’re footballers who want to get back on the pitch and play’

“It’s an Irish thing that you just get on with it and go with the flow and we’ve done that for a number of years and tried to keep plugging away."

Football has taken Stephanie Roche to places she could hardly have imagined as a kid who, growing up in Shankhill, was mad about the game, writes Liam Mackey.

Two years ago, she was a contender at Fifa’s Ballon d’Or gala in Zurich, mixing it with the likes of Messi and Ronaldo as her celebrated volley in the homely surroundings of Wexford’s Ferrycarrig Park was edged out for the prestigious Puskas Award – presented for the goal of the year - by a James Rodriguez strike at the World Cup finals in Brazil.