Aoife Mannion hoping to build on promising Ireland debut

NEWCOMERS: Republic of Ireland players, from left, Aoife Mannion, Marissa Sheva and Deborah-Anne de la Harpe after the international friendly match between China PR and Republic of Ireland at Estadio Nuevo Mirador in Algeciras, Spain. Pic: Stephen McCarthy/Sportsfile

Newcomer Aoife Mannion is confident of earning a World Cup spot despite her lack of gametime at Manchester United.

The 27-year-old made her Ireland debut in Wednesday’s scoreless draw against China in Spain, the first of five friendly matches in advance of the July tournament co-hosted by Australia and New Zealand.

She had played underage for England but remained eligible to switch allegiance after being left on the bench in three senior friendlies.

A commanding presence within the back three, she’s still gaining match fitness following her recovering from a serious knee injury but performed well enough to be in Vera Pauw’s mix for Ireland’s first ever major tournament appearance.

She even had a goal chalked off when the referee harshly adjudged a foul on the goalkeeper before nodding into the empty net.

“Playing 65 minutes today was the most I’ve had since February 2022,” revealed the defender, currently on the bench at WSL league leaders United.

“When I walked onto the pitch, it had been watered and was lovely and I thought this is what I’m used to, knowing I’d be able to give the best show of myself.

“I hope it came across that I enjoyed myself.

“Vera is trying to implement a more passing style of play but clear to be solid defensively because that’s what got us through the qualification.

“That’s my game, being aggressive on and off the ball. All I can do is bring what I’ve done at the club.

“We feel we’ve taken a step forward but it’s a work in progress.

“We’ve got a really good squad at Manchester United. If, and when, I get called upon, hopefully sooner rather than later, I’ll be there.” 

Pauw added of her new recruit, who had her Irish-born parents, Kathleen and Bernard as well as sister Áine present for her senior debut: ”She performed really well and gave a calmness in the back and a toughness in the back.

“The key thing for her is that we need to keep her healthy and that means not getting injured and from there, gradually grow.

“This was only her third game back from injury and she hasn’t finished one yet, so that is also the reason I took her off.

“We had her live heart-rate monitor on the bench and we took her off the moment my eyes saw that she was getting a bit fatigued.

“Manchester United’s coach (Mark Skinner) wants Aoife to be back at her old level, so he was really happy that we took her even though she has only played with their U23s recently.

“He said ‘please, if you feel that she can play more minutes, then give her more minutes.’ 

“And we gave her more minutes than we planned before the camp.

“We could do that because her heartrates allowed it and she had a really good rehab programme. She can only grow from here.” 

China were ranked 14th, nine places above Ireland in the Fifa rankings, and the workout did them good in the context of the World Cup level. 

They open on July 20 against co-hosts Australia in the 83,000-seater Sydney Olympic Stadium before facing Canada six days later and Nigeria on July 31.