{"id":49152,"date":"2025-09-28T17:49:07","date_gmt":"2025-09-28T17:49:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/49152\/"},"modified":"2025-09-28T17:49:07","modified_gmt":"2025-09-28T17:49:07","slug":"all-eyes-on-carla-wards-next-ireland-squad-after-athlone-town-continue-title-march-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/49152\/","title":{"rendered":"All eyes on Carla Ward\u2019s next Ireland squad after Athlone Town continue title march \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cIf I was the Irish manager I\u2019d be calling up the likes of Kayleigh Shine, R\u00f3is\u00edn Molloy, Kelly Brady,\u201d said Madie Gibson, one of Athlone Town\u2019s American contingent, when she reflected on the club\u2019s outstanding season<\/a> last week. <\/p>\n

By the time Republic of Ireland<\/a> manager Carla Ward<\/a> names her squad for next month\u2019s Nations League playoff against Belgium, Athlone\u2019s Irish crew are likely to have league winners\u2019 medals in their pockets again after their 2-1 win over Shelbourne on Saturday. Whether that helps them earn senior international recognition remains to be seen. <\/p>\n

Goals from Hannah Waesch and Brady put Athlone 2-0 up at Tolka Park before Jemma Quinn scored what proved to be a late consolation for the home side. The result leaves Athlone four points clear of Shels with a game in hand and needing just three more points from their last three games to retain the title.<\/p>\n

They might even wrap it up as soon as Wednesday when they\u2019re away to bottom-of-the-table Cork City, at which point they could turn their focus on winning the double \u2013 they play Bohemians in next month\u2019s FAI Cup final. <\/p>\n

A former Athlone player, meanwhile, had a week to remember in England. Nineteen-year-old goalkeeper Katie Keane starred for Sheffield United in their League Cup penalty shoot-out win over Durham before making her league debut for the team on Saturday. <\/p>\n

Keane, who joined Leicester City from Shamrock Rovers during the summer, was an emergency loan signing by the Blades after their first- and second-choice goalkeepers suffered injuries.<\/p>\n

It was a good week, too, for Keane\u2019s former Rovers and now-United comrade Joy Ralph, who also set sail for England during the summer. The Dubliner has scored in each of her last two games for the club. <\/p>\n

On the concerning side for Ireland boss Ward is the injury status of three of her established internationals. Denise O\u2019Sullivan<\/a>, out of action for North Carolina Courage since mid-August, confirmed she is recovering from a knee injury, although she is now back running, while a similar problem ruled goalkeeper Courtney Brosnan out of Everton\u2019s league game on Sunday. <\/p>\n

Elsewhere, a foot injury caused Leanne Kiernan to miss Liverpool\u2019s defeat by Manchester United. Brosnan and Kiernan are both expected to return in the next week, with the chief worry centring on how long it will take for O\u2019Sullivan to get back playing.<\/p>\n

In better news, both Saoirse Noonan of Celtic and Sunderland\u2019s Marissa Sheva were back in action on Sunday after spells out injured. Noonan scored for Celtic in their 4-0 win over Montrose, while Scarlett Herron scored in her first start for Hibernian since joining them earlier this month. <\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Jenna Slattery, a January signing from Galway United, helped herself to a double for Hearts against Partick Thistle, picking up the player-of-the-match award for good measure.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cIf I was the Irish manager I\u2019d be calling up the likes of Kayleigh Shine, R\u00f3is\u00edn Molloy, Kelly…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":49153,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[10863,35778,17347,6285,61,60,43,3405,850,10864],"class_list":["post-49152","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-bestof","tag-club-soccer","tag-essential","tag-horizontal","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-news","tag-soccer","tag-sport","tag-topix"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49152","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=49152"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49152\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/49153"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=49152"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=49152"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=49152"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}