1 day Ago By Neil O'Riordan
THE failure to stamp their tickets to a major tournament prompted the departure of one management team.And the mislaying of a passport may yet herald the premature end for one coach on the staff that replaced it.Ireland play Greece away on Friday before the reverse fixture on Tuesday, April 8A possible promotion at Liverpool could spell the end of Amber Whiteley’s time with the Ireland staffThere may be a time when the topic of Carla Ward’s assistants does not dominate the news agenda.
That day has not yet come.Ward inherited a situation where there was claim and counter-claim of broken promises and the insensitive nature of the FAI’s handling of the exit of Eileen Gleeson’s No 2 Colin Healy, eight months after his wife Kelly passed away.Yesterday, his replacement Alan Mahon said, as Ward had done, there was no reason why Healy would not be in the frame for the No 3 role if Amber Whiteley is unable to continue in it.
The question mark over her continuing came about because, since taking on the part-time position with the FAI, she has been promoted from assistant to caretaker manager at Liverpool.Were she to land the Reds job on a full-time basis, it is assumed she would have to give up the Ireland role.As it was, it emerged yesterday that she was only due to be around for the away game against Greece in the Nations League on Friday, and not the home one on Tuesday.
But she did not even get as far as Dublin, having mislaid her passport and cancelled it before it turned up, with no prospect of getting a replacement in time.The net result may be that February’s double-header against Turkey and Slovenia will prove to have been her sole involvement with the squad.Ward will hope that the difficulty Stephen Kenny had in retaining No 3s — he went through four in his 31⁄2 years in charge — has not transferred from the men to the women’s team.
To plug the gap this time, the FAI’s head of women and girls’ football Hannah Dingley — who has extensive coaching experience although most of it is at academy level — has stepped in. Given how Mahon admitted yesterday that the team had been thrown by the loss of Megan Connolly in the warm-up prior to the 4-0 defeat to Slovenia, they will all hope they roll better with the punches this time around. Mahon said: “You have a plan with a certain team and Megan coming out 20 minutes before kick-off when you have built some stuff around that, it does affect you but that was down to us as a group to change that.
“No excuses, that’s football, you have to change.”Mahon, meanwhile, suggested that the return of Nick Cushing — under whom he previously worked — to Manchester City women’s team does not mean that he will be hot-footing his way back to his former club and create more disruption on the staff front.Mahon said: “Nick lives beside me outside Chester.
“We’ve had a couple of chats — very experienced manager, good guy, I’ve spent a lot of time with him.“He is a character, a well-respected manager and a good guy.“I will speak to him but I have not even thought about it or looked at it.
“My only focus is Ireland, whether I do it for five, ten, 50 years, six months.“This is me now. I am 100 per cent doing this.
“I would not double job. But that is my preference, that’s not saying it cannot be done, it’s just the only way I can work.”DIFFERENT ROUTINEFor now, he is coming to terms with the routine of international football and how it compares to that of the club game.
The twice-capped midfielder said: “If I’m being honest that’s the most frustrating part for me.“I don’t have a cat and, if I did I wouldn’t kick it, but I’d be rubbing it harder.“We’re not playing week to week so you can’t rectify the Slovenia game straight away, whereas at club level you could have a game soon after on the Wednesday and Sunday to put the result to bed.
“But from a development perspective, I enjoyed it. “We’ve had a deep dive into the game and probably come away with a rounded view. That’s different from the day-to-day.
” Ward held up her hands after the chastening defeat and conceded that fielding players out of position may have contributed to the loss.Nevertheless, there are no real regrets about how they approached the game.Mahon said: “In hindsight, it’s ifs, buts and coconuts isn’t it? You do things at the time because you think that’s the plan.
“There are a couple of things that we could probably have changed, done a bit different, but I still back what we decided at the time because we felt it was right.”Skipper Katie McCabe was used in an advanced role in Koper but, after she struggled to make an impact there, she was moved back to left-back.But Mahon said: “I would not say it didn’t work for her.
As a collective it just didn’t work.“There may be opportunities where she may have to play in other areas, it depends.“Katie McCabe, for me — and I have been up against her for many years in England — is one of the best left-footers I have come across in women’s football.
”Ireland’s right-back last time out, Heather Payne, who was substituted at half-time, is a doubt for the first leg at least because of an ankle problem but she has travelled..
