In need of a sharper edge, time is not on Pauw's side

Ireland manager sees her side undone by top opposition again as collective fade gives her plenty to ponder on flight Down Under

THINKING TIME: Republic of Ireland head coach Vera Pauw during an international friendly match at Tallaght Stadium, Dublin. Pic: Brian Lawless/PA Wire.

This is the point when time distorts and the mind can play all manner of tricks. Days seem like weeks and minutes stretch like hours as the countdown clock moves ever more stubbornly towards the big kick-off.

Go back to the run-up to Euro 2012 and an interminable build-up that took in Malahide, Montecatini in Italy, Budapest and then Gdynia finally ended with loose talk, in some circles, of Giovanni Tapattoni’s lads ‘doing a Greece’.