Arsenal’s Katie McCabe the standout act among Irish players abroad at weekend

You might have heard of Katie McCabe’s left foot? It was up to its usual tricks on Sunday, producing a screamer of a goal from a narrow angle in the 92nd minute that drew Arsenal level with Aston Villa in their English Women’s Super League game.

And to top off a day on which the Irish captain made her 200th appearance for the club, in front of a crowd of 35,000 at the Emirates Stadium, Alessia Russo got the winner two minutes later.

“See Katie McCabe. You want her on your team. Doesn’t matter if it’s going badly or you’re winning comfortably. You want her alongside you. Another brilliant strike,” as McCabe’s number one fan, Ian Wright, put it.

A memorable day, too, for Courtney Brosnan and Heather Payne who were part of the Everton team that came away from Anfield with a 1-0 win, 23,088 in attendance for the Merseyside derby.

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A clean sheet for Brosnan, who reclaimed her place in the side from Emily Ramsey, and a runner-up spot for Payne in Sky Sport’s deliberations on the player of the match award. The Roscommon woman, who was outstanding on the right for Everton — Sky’s heat map showing her covering every blade of grass on that wing — was pipped to the gong by goalscorer Megan Finnigan.

While it was a frustrating afternoon for Megan Campbell, an unused sub for Everton against the club she left at the end of last season, she should at least now be available for the two Nations League games against Albania later this month after her recent injury woes.

But interim Republic of Ireland manager Eileen Gleeson will have a few health checks to do before she names her squad for those games, both Amber Barrett (Standard Liege) and Abbie Larkin missing their games at the weekend. Larkin was initially named in Glasgow City’s starting line-up for their meeting with Aberdeen, only to be replaced at the last minute —no updates as yet, but presumably a problem picked up the warm-up.

Niamh Fahey, Leanne Kiernan (both Liverpool), Aoife Mannion (Manchester United), Jess Ziu, Jessie Stapleton (both West Ham) and Ruesha Littlejohn (London City) all remain on the injury list, but in better news, Caitlin Hayes returned for Celtic in their 3-0 win away to Partick Thistle a week after a knee injury had ruled her out of action.

In all, just five of Ireland’s 13 WSL players started for their clubs at the weekend, among them Chloe Mustaki and Megan Connolly whose Bristol City side remain rooted to the bottom of the table on zero points after their 5-0 battering by Manchester City.

It’s a struggle in the Championship too, only three of Ireland’s 16 representatives with clubs in the top half of the table after seven games — Tyler Toland, Blackburn’s player of the month for September, Crystal Palace’s Hayley Nolan and Southampton’s Emily Kraft.