It was less than a fortnight ago, ahead of the Republic of Ireland’s friendly against Morocco, that Izzy Atkinson admitted to feeling a whole heap of frustration over her lack of game time with West Ham since she moved to the London club from Celtic during the summer.
The 21-year-old Dubliner might, though, have earned herself more English Super League minutes after her 88th-minute intervention on Sunday when she came off the bench to score the winner for West Ham against Leicester, her first goal for the club.
A neatly taken goal it was too, Atkinson’s quick feet taking her past two defenders before her shot found the bottom right corner of the goal. She was the only one of eight Irish players in Super League action over the weekend to end up on the winning side, the game between Brighton and Liverpool, which featured four of the national squad, ending 3-3.
That fixture saw the return to action of Megan Connolly, a half-time sub, the midfielder having sustained fractured ribs and a bruised kidney against Finland in September. Megan Walsh was in goal for Brighton, while Niamh Fahey and Megan Campbell lined out for Liverpool, both taken off during the game.
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First choice Irish goalkeeper Courtney Brosnan was on the bench for Everton’s defeat to Manchester City on Saturday, but another of the squad’s goalkeepers, Grace Moloney, saw action for the last 20 minutes of Reading’s 3-1 loss to Aston Villa after Jacqueline Burns was sent off. Moloney had been left out of the Reading squad since posting that “Ooh ah, up the ‘Ra” video on social media following the World Cup play-off victory over Scotland.
“She’s gone through a really tough time personally and we’ve just tried to help her through that,” said her Reading manager Kelly Chambers. “It’s been a difficult time for her, but she’s back training fully now.”
Irish captain Katie McCabe, meanwhile, was on the losing side for the first time in 15 Super League games when Arsenal lost 3-2 at home to Manchester United in front of a crowd of 40,000 at the Emirates Stadium.
United scored twice in the last five minutes, but that was nothing next to the heartache suffered by Ireland’s sole Italian Serie A representative. Niamh Farrelly’s Parma led Juventus two minutes into injury time, and ended up losing 2-1.
