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The game, a huge, huge goal. We're very

0:56

proud of the team's performance. We're going to

0:58

go out there to beat them. We're going

1:00

to try and beat them. Hello

1:04

and welcome to the latest episode of

1:06

the Coi Gig podcast. Kathleen McNamee

1:08

here as always, and this week I

1:10

am joined by a special guest

1:12

in the one and only Alana

1:15

Knan, who we love to have on the

1:17

podcast every so often to chat all the

1:19

things we've got at the League here and

1:21

just Irish happenings in general. Alana, how are

1:23

you? I have my

1:26

lambs up here with me, but I'm okay otherwise than that. Between

1:30

you and Emma Carroll, everyone is sick today. I don't

1:32

know what it is. There must be something in the

1:34

air. It's this constant changing weather where like at the

1:36

weekend it'll be gorgeous and you can sit outside and

1:38

then the next minute it's pouring rain and you just

1:40

don't really know what to dress or what to do.

1:43

Yeah. I'm enjoying it very much. Alana,

1:45

we had some raking news

1:48

today, which kind of skewed all my

1:50

plans for this top of the show.

1:52

And that was after literally just

1:55

a year of being involved in the

1:57

Ireland squad and seven cats, Sinead Farley.

2:00

has retired from international

2:02

football. Can you just

2:04

give me your immediate reaction? I saw at

2:06

first the email coming through from the FBI.

2:10

Where were you? What were you doing? What were you thinking when you

2:12

saw this? Yeah, same as

2:14

that. I came across it on Twitter and you

2:16

were just thinking, you're deaf, that it's here ago,

2:18

because we don't have a

2:20

lot of players like Chanel. So

2:23

you were just absolutely in awe

2:25

watching her, like the deaf slot,

2:27

the technical ability, the calmness under

2:29

pressure, and the ability to split

2:31

a defense in two. And then all of that on

2:33

top of that, she just seemed like a lovely presence

2:37

and I'm sure a great person to have

2:39

around the camp. And such experience.

2:41

And I'd say coming in nearly

2:43

a year to the

2:45

week, definitely the month anyways.

2:48

So close to workup selection. She had to be

2:51

above and beyond brilliant to get in

2:53

over the preexisting players and she definitely

2:55

was. And I know for

2:57

some other players, maybe there was always that

3:00

contention point, like, Oh, could we have brought

3:02

one of the Irish home grown players

3:04

over one of these players that surfaced

3:06

in the year in the lead up to the World Cup,

3:09

but she definitely was not. One of them was

3:11

brilliant to have her, especially on that world

3:14

stage. And she proved she belonged to me

3:16

there. Only nine caps, but it'll mean a

3:18

lot more to Ireland fans around the world,

3:20

I'm sure. Yeah. So

3:24

her first cap for Ireland came against the US women's national

3:26

team on the eighth of April. So we're

3:28

basically like a year and three weeks since she

3:30

made her debut. I won't

3:33

lie. I was

3:35

super conflicted when I saw this news today.

3:37

I, I obviously know her entire story and

3:39

the incredibly difficult

3:41

path she has taken to come

3:43

back to football. And I do think as

3:46

a redemption story, it's incredible. And as you say, she's

3:48

a very good player. And

3:50

as you say, she's an absolutely brilliant

3:52

player for us. And maybe

3:55

that's partly the reason why I feel this way,

3:57

but I will, I did feel

3:59

a tiny bit. used in the whole

4:01

situation that she came in for the year.

4:03

And now I know she has

4:05

had some injury issues the last while, so

4:08

there could be some lot in play. She didn't

4:10

really mention anything about that in the statement. But

4:12

I do kind of think

4:14

that she would stay for a nation's league campaign because if

4:16

you were dreaming of playing in a World Cup, a

4:20

dream of playing for your country out

4:22

of Euros as well must be semi

4:24

high up there. And I know she

4:27

obviously has a lot of art heritage, but growing

4:29

up in the States, maybe that's different because the Euros

4:31

aren't the same massive tournament or whatever

4:33

as they are here. But I

4:36

did, there was a little bit of

4:38

me that was just really disappointed. And

4:40

I think even if you look at

4:42

Eileen Gleason's statement, she said the

4:44

bare bit of us. Yeah.

4:48

And it also would be wondering, Cathy, now

4:50

I know you probably remember quite a lot

4:52

of the camps like earlier on towards the

4:54

World Cup, like the Sinead was listed and

4:56

then like you say, for injury reasons or

4:59

whatever. So you'd wonder when the decision was

5:01

kind of made, I suppose would be the

5:03

same. But yeah, I don't know. I suppose

5:05

ACAP overall. Yeah, it's

5:07

what could have been nearly, but I suppose

5:10

the other side of it as well, like

5:12

we knew it wasn't going to be forever

5:14

given her age profile and having come back

5:16

into this sport. And yeah, it's

5:18

just sad to see it end. Yeah.

5:22

So I don't actually know the FBI

5:24

publish Eileen Gleason's comments anywhere other

5:26

than in the email they sent out to

5:29

press. But basically it says, I'd like to

5:31

thank Sinead for her time representing Ireland and

5:33

we wish her the very best in her

5:35

career going forward. And

5:39

that's it. Now, in fairness, Eileen Gleason did come in after

5:41

the World Cup and above the big games

5:43

won't have seen a whole lot of Sinead Farley or

5:45

worked with her a whole lot. But I

5:48

don't know. I feel like when you have someone that's gone to a

5:50

World Cup with you in that way and represented you, give it

5:54

a bit more to say if you're not

5:56

a little bit put out by the

5:58

situation. This is also, I think. I

6:00

have to stress pure speculation on my

6:02

behalf. I have no insight to the

6:05

Irish camp and what the feelings are

6:07

around this just before someone thinks,

6:09

I don't want to do a whole Emma Byrne

6:11

thing where she said something about a player in

6:13

the next day. It's like, Arsenal legend, Emma Byrne

6:15

says, although I don't think anyone cares

6:18

about what I think as much as they care about what Emma

6:20

Byrne thinks. I have a couple

6:22

of comments here from people who got into

6:24

us on Twitter at

6:27

the Quaking Pod if you have any thoughts and you want to get

6:29

them into us at any stage, we're always liking

6:31

and replying there. But Eileen said, disappointing really.

6:33

But if we could get Karen in the

6:35

next squad, it would lighten the blow for us

6:37

all. So maybe that's why Karen isn't

6:39

here tonight. Yeah, we want to,

6:42

I suppose, the campaign gets started now,

6:51

casting Karen Duggan for Ireland again.

6:55

I mean, I keep trying to get it going, but she's just

6:57

not supporting me in this, which I think is very rude. Kim

7:01

says, great player, can't just show

7:03

up for a tournament and ditch us when it's over.

7:05

I know injuries have been a struggle, but much more

7:07

deserving people who have stuck through the highs and lows

7:10

of not qualifying missed out quite unfair. And

7:12

Olivia Leonard, girl got her World Cup squad

7:14

and said, piece emoji, just

7:17

as people predicted pre-World Cup, she was unbelievable

7:19

for us, no doubt, but can't help, but

7:21

feel incredibly sorry for Jamie Finn, who has

7:23

been there every step of the way. So

7:28

consistent enough feelings from people

7:30

about this, which I'm not totally surprised. I

7:32

think there was a lot of nice tributes to

7:34

her and what she gave

7:36

us in the World Cup. But I think that's

7:39

the main thing. People saw the potential of what our

7:41

midfield could be like with her there. I'm

7:43

slightly concerned as to what we're going to

7:45

do now, Alana, because that was the one

7:47

area that we say in the England and

7:49

France games. If we had someone like

7:52

her there, we would probably be able to play a lot

7:54

better. I think that's

7:56

the thing, especially during that whole conversation you're talking about

7:58

there, like, showed if... it

8:00

was a scenario where someone was

8:03

trying to get the work off and I mean anyone

8:05

would. And we can't,

8:07

you can't really feel so much aggrieved when she

8:09

was such a brilliant player, you know, like if

8:11

it was a sake of that there was somebody

8:13

better than her, fantastic, but maybe that's the kind

8:15

of, you need to tip them on a pet

8:17

that way and go, where are

8:20

we going to start producing this caliber of

8:22

player here in Ireland? I know all kinds

8:24

of are at peace during the week looking

8:26

at academies in Ireland and how the league

8:28

here at home is such a young age

8:30

and then even it's a bit of

8:32

a bookend in between people's careers because maybe they're

8:35

there, they're trying to get that jump over to

8:37

England, same might come back

8:39

down before they retire, but we need to really

8:41

start looking at I suppose our home grown end

8:43

of things and see how we're going to get

8:45

players of that caliber here and

8:47

get a lot more of them too because we could

8:50

do with them like you say in the mid-fielder especially

8:52

against the top teams and so yeah

8:54

we always have to go over there. Yeah

8:59

we definitely do and as you say that

9:01

Owen Cowzer piece is really interesting so it

9:03

was the first one that I had seen

9:05

that actually mentioned the women's game in the

9:07

context of the academy and the academy

9:09

findings released by the FAI and

9:12

I think you know there's probably

9:14

a general acceptance that the league here will

9:16

always be a bit of

9:18

a feeder league but I also see a

9:20

situation in the last while where there is

9:23

less, I would

9:25

worry about the amount of talent that we're

9:27

going to have competing in the WSL in

9:29

the coming years rather than perhaps

9:32

a championship or even a broad, Karen and I talked about

9:34

it a little bit last week and

9:36

I think it's important that

9:40

we don't just focus on the granny rule,

9:42

it's obviously brought a lot of great players

9:44

to our shores but also

9:46

we need to make sure we're developing it on

9:48

a basis here. You look at the likes of

9:50

Tarou Hanan the fact that she's able to go

9:52

from the league here to City that's incredible but

9:54

why can't there be more of that there's no

9:56

reason we just need the funding to

9:58

come along with it. give a

10:00

quick word to three players who will

10:03

hopefully be going to the WSL next

10:05

year. And that is Abulark and Izzy

10:07

Atkinson and Hayley Nolan, who all got

10:09

qualified with Crystal

10:11

Palace. They had their

10:13

final day of the league after the weekend there and you got

10:15

to see them celebrating, which is great news

10:18

for us because those sort of championship

10:20

teams, your Birmingham's and the like, we

10:22

want to see a few of those

10:24

up, especially with the news that Bristol

10:26

sadly are getting relegated from the WSL

10:28

that was confirmed, my old

10:30

pals. We knew it was coming but it still hurts so

10:32

much. So great news for them,

10:34

Alana. Yeah, definitely.

10:36

It's actually considering that the three Irish

10:38

players, Hayley Nolan, Izzy Atkinson and Abulark

10:40

and had actually joined Palace quite recently

10:42

when you think about it. Nolan was

10:45

last summer from London City, Atkinson from

10:47

West Ham in January and Alark and

10:49

the same but from Glasgow. So, brilliant

10:51

to see them have an impact. I

10:53

suppose the tempered warning there would be

10:55

we were equally delighted for our crew

10:57

with Masaki last year with

10:59

when Bristol obviously were promoted and

11:02

ultimately were free off

11:04

two down, Masaki and

11:07

Megan Connolly. But yeah, I suppose you have

11:09

to celebrate the wins and we have them

11:11

and delighted for them. Hopefully we can see

11:13

more Irish talent I'd say in

11:15

the top tier of the WSL and

11:17

keep pushing on that way too. Yeah,

11:20

I mean, I enjoyed seeing a

11:22

team like Crystal Palace getting that

11:25

promotion because they actually in the

11:27

early days of the women's league, they actually used

11:29

to be one of the teams that put quite

11:31

a lot of money into the game and into

11:33

their side and then there was

11:35

an ownership change and that just completely changed

11:37

with it and the team was basically

11:40

the equivalent of scrapped and then they kind of

11:42

came back up again. So it's

11:44

nice seeing those stories. I challenged Gillie Farrar

11:46

about it a couple of weeks ago. I

11:48

personally would like to see one down, two

11:50

up or something for a couple of seasons just to

11:53

give teams more of a chance

11:55

and also a bit more of a

11:57

chance to kind of stick in the league for a while. So I

11:59

think that's important. And that's only going to happen when

12:01

we have a slightly bigger lead too. But

12:04

yeah, we shall see what happens. Hopefully they all

12:06

get to stay on at the club and get

12:08

to experience the WSL in

12:11

all its glory. And maybe

12:13

they'll turn into a Leicester or something rather than

12:15

a Bristol of, you know, going straight up and then

12:17

coming straight back down again. But

12:20

Alana, thank you for morning the loss of Sinead

12:22

Farley with me. I'm sure we will do plenty

12:24

more of it throughout this podcast. But now we

12:26

are going to turn our attention to our Team

12:28

of the Week. Now

12:34

I'm delighted to say we are joined by Emma Carroll

12:36

to do her Team of the Week. And Emma, I

12:39

know you're not feeling great. So we do appreciate you

12:41

jumping in to do this with us. And I see

12:43

there's some lovely Irish bias in our Team of the

12:45

Week. So would you like to fire away? Yeah,

12:48

there could be more. Courtney

12:50

Brosnan, Ingo, 4th Back

12:52

of Casbury, Litigier, Finnegan McCabe,

12:54

we've got Clinton Dally and

12:56

Newecky in the midfield and

12:58

then Fowler, England and Hemphill.

13:02

You were saying before we started recording that you

13:04

had something to say about Mary Fowler. So I will

13:06

let you have your moment. I

13:09

just thought she was brilliant. Like

13:11

she started out wide and in the first

13:13

half she was still like, it

13:16

was a very tough game against Bristol.

13:19

They really had that block up

13:21

and Mary Fowler was the only one that was

13:24

great. And then I found in the second half

13:26

when Crassbury came on, Kelly

13:28

flipped out wide and Fowler went down to

13:30

the middle, which I kind of thought looking

13:33

at the team sheet that would have been the

13:35

natural position to start her in anyway. She

13:37

was just brilliant. Like got the two

13:39

goals and two really good goals as

13:42

well. Like what a strike for the first one. And

13:44

then the dark they crossed, the real kind of

13:46

striker finish for the second goal as well. I

13:49

just thought she was outstanding. She's probably the player

13:51

of the weekend for me. Yeah,

13:54

I thought she was incredible. And

13:56

we keep seeing these games from her

13:58

as well where. because

14:00

she's not going to be getting the sort of game time that

14:02

we expect or to be fair like

14:04

said, you have quite a lot of strength

14:06

and depth, but strength and depth, I should

14:08

say. That

14:10

we probably see it more sporadically than we would

14:12

like to, but it would be great to see

14:14

her get a proper run and being able to show

14:17

those skills in the way that we know she has it. And we've

14:19

seen it for her for the international

14:21

squad as well. It's terrifying how young

14:23

she is and how much room

14:26

there still is there to grow. I

14:29

certainly would not envy anyone trying

14:31

to go up against her. Alanna,

14:33

what did you think of this team? Yeah,

14:36

I like the spread across the few

14:38

teams, I suppose. You could have had

14:40

basically the entire City team really thinking

14:43

about Greenwood and who else did

14:45

I have thinking as well? Oh

14:47

yeah, Chloe Kelly, I thought probably

14:49

could have been future, but I

14:52

appreciate it. It's given the spread,

14:54

solid teams because I'm on shore there

14:56

keeping in check and noting down anything

14:58

to put on the dressing room wall.

15:01

So that's a fair point there. I'm

15:04

sorry, probably Katie Zellow, I thought it

15:06

was quite good for United as well.

15:10

But yeah, pretty solid team overall. Yeah,

15:14

I can refer back to the Irish boys as well because

15:17

for me, I was up until about 75 minutes. I

15:20

probably had Megan Connolly in there. I thought the

15:22

way Bristol defended, she marshalled

15:24

the back, kept in line,

15:28

was brilliant. But when you lose 4-0

15:30

in the end, it's probably hard to justify

15:32

it. And then the other one is obviously

15:34

Courtney in goal again. Outstanding

15:37

some really good saves. Unlucky with

15:40

the Russo goals that she

15:42

pulled off a brilliant save against Bette Mead and then

15:44

it just ricocheted straight back into the pass of Russo,

15:47

which is quite unfortunate. I was

15:49

kind of arguing and debating with myself

15:51

whether Leitek should go in goal because

15:54

she hasn't played that much. But when you

15:56

consider that she came in last January before

15:58

last, keeps Leicester up. pretty much.

16:01

Then cop comes in and pretty much takes

16:03

the number one spot at Leicester. Some

16:06

reason like to start to head over

16:08

against United and again, like I took

16:10

a worldly from Ella to feed her.

16:13

So she probably could have

16:15

been in with a show but my green tinted

16:17

glasses won it. It

16:19

was a relatively difficult weekend I imagined to

16:21

pull together a team because it's not like

16:24

there was a whole host of goals. You

16:26

know, most of the games were 1-0s, 1-1 apart from the

16:29

City game I think. Yeah. And then

16:31

you couldn't take any Chelsea players

16:33

because they were playing against Barca

16:36

in the Champions League. Quick

16:38

question on that one actually, just before we

16:40

wrap, who stood out for you the most

16:42

in that Barca Chelsea game? Oh,

16:46

Matti? Oh, sorry.

16:49

I thought Roafo. Roafo

16:51

was quite good, playing

16:54

4-4 as well. And

16:56

with that different staff, Barca and Maeve starting Lucy

16:59

Bronz which made baddie go to

17:01

the other side and meant that Roafo could

17:03

get a bit further forward as well. And

17:06

it also kind of gives Caroline Grimhanssen maybe a little

17:08

bit more freedom as well on the right hand side

17:10

but, yeah. I'm

17:17

still slightly sad that we didn't drop

17:20

Zane in the Nations League

17:22

just so I get to see her run around. But

17:24

then after watching the few performances that I have so

17:26

far, I'm like, maybe, maybe it's worth the

17:28

best. Are you

17:30

feeling confident Emma against Chelsea during the

17:32

week? Yeah, I said to one

17:34

of the lads in the office today

17:37

that Emma Hayes might not

17:39

win anything because Liverpool could do the job on

17:41

Wednesday night and that's Chelsea's league

17:43

gone. Oh, fighting

17:46

talk from Emma about the other Emma. I

17:48

would be quite sad that Emma Hayes is

17:50

leaving in her final season without anything but,

17:52

you know, Liverpool was and

17:54

everything. Yeah, I would

17:57

have said the same until the last couple

17:59

of weeks. Because I respect her

18:01

so much, which is some of the stuff she's come out with, I'm

18:03

just like... It all got a bit weird. Yeah.

18:05

Yeah. She's undoing the legacy a

18:07

little bit. Not totally, but just, you know, just...

18:09

I really don't agree with that. Listen,

18:11

she might be a big... Emma... Where

18:14

is that? I think it wouldn't be

18:16

a bad year to round it off with an

18:19

Olympic medal. Although, knowing how much she hates to

18:21

lose, she will probably also crash

18:23

her office or something. If

18:25

she ends this season without a title. Emma,

18:28

thank you very much for doing that. It's very

18:30

much appreciated. Cheers. Now

18:37

I'd like to say that we were joined through a

18:39

gaming prescribed Olympic class in the weekend

18:41

section that was. We have our Champions

18:43

League finalists and, as we said last week, Amy,

18:46

you can't ever count Barca out. I

18:50

mean, do you know what? I think I've been really

18:52

impressed with them this year because they didn't kind of

18:54

come out and sort of took a tack at

18:56

Chelsea to death. They really

18:59

ground out like kind of an

19:01

ugly win, really, which, you

19:03

know, maybe in Barca circles is... That's

19:05

not what they want, but I think it's kind of

19:07

like a step up in sort of mentality from

19:09

them. I was really

19:11

impressed, to be honest. I know it was

19:14

controversial, the circumstances, and you can say a

19:16

lot, but yeah, I was impressed. I suppose

19:18

it's something that we haven't seen or had

19:20

to have seen from this Barcelona team all

19:22

that much in the last couple of seasons

19:25

because they have been so dominant

19:27

and it's rare that we get the opportunity to

19:29

see them go up against a team that is

19:31

at their level and

19:34

puts them to the sort of point where they have

19:36

to play a little bit dirty and a little bit

19:39

ugly. Yeah, and I

19:41

think if you look at Chelsea in

19:43

the semi-final last year, I think they

19:45

were kind of quite a bit more mature in

19:48

their game plan. I mean, I don't think they

19:50

played great in the second leg. I think Jess

19:52

Carter kind of spoke about like we just gave

19:54

the ball away too much and that's definitely

19:56

true, but if you look at them, they

19:59

don't have to... play that conservative

20:01

setback tactics often in England because they're so dominant,

20:03

kind of what you were just saying about Barca,

20:06

but so it's slightly new to them. And

20:08

I think they showed improvements in

20:10

doing it this year

20:13

compared to last. And they're definitely a

20:15

step closer to kind of getting

20:17

over the line, but it's just so tough.

20:20

I think people underestimate how tough it is to kind of

20:23

look like they've spent so long trying to

20:25

close that gap. And yeah, I think

20:27

Barca probably deserved to win the title. I think

20:29

there's just kind of positive plans for Chelsea. What

20:34

was it that Barca got

20:36

so right that they didn't manage to

20:39

do against Chelsea the week before or

20:41

even was it Chelsea that they had

20:43

just maybe used a lot of the

20:46

energy and the tactical decisions that they

20:48

had? I know it's kind of hard

20:50

to discuss this with the results and

20:52

with the decisions that were given

20:55

because that's such a dominant part

20:57

of the narrative. I

20:59

think if you look at the equalizing goal, I think

21:01

you can kind of look at snapshots of the tie,

21:03

right? I think that equalizing goal from Bomay is

21:05

like a real moment of quality. I know

21:08

it takes a deflection off Buchanan, but like

21:10

to create the space the way that she does

21:12

is I mean, it's what class and

21:15

then, you know, Chelsea just kind

21:17

of like I just said, they

21:19

gave the ball away too much. Like there was

21:21

points where you sit there and they kind

21:23

of dealt with some danger and just kind of

21:25

kicked his shirt back to Barcelona and it needed

21:27

to stick and they didn't think

21:29

they miss Ramirez massively in that sense to

21:32

just make the ball stick. Like

21:35

so yeah, but like you say, it's quite

21:37

difficult because of that 10 versus 11. I

21:40

would have been treated this as

21:42

a neutral. It kind of spoiled

21:44

it because I really wanted

21:46

to see how like at halftime, I was

21:48

like, this is set up so perfectly for

21:51

a few minutes. Who's going to make the

21:53

Champions League five? I know, you know, you don't

21:55

know who's, you know, how it's going to be decided

21:57

or anything and then that kind of ruined that. Yeah,

22:00

that kind of anticipation for that thing. Yeah,

22:04

Lana, there definitely was that feeling if you're watching

22:06

this game as a neutral that you

22:09

wanted to see these two teams, two of

22:11

the best teams in Europe go toe to

22:13

toe for the entire game. At

22:15

least let Hayes have the sort of

22:17

send off to the Champions League if

22:19

it was going to be a send

22:21

off that wasn't marred by some sort

22:23

of controversial refereeing decision. Her comments

22:26

after the fact probably didn't help it because

22:28

it added more fuel to the fire but

22:30

it would have been nice to have had

22:32

11-11 for the entire game. Yeah,

22:35

it definitely would have. I had to say it was nearly

22:37

written in the stairs and that was all kind of scrapped.

22:39

It was thrown out the window. They saw that Samford Bridge

22:42

and Hayes' last game there. The

22:45

one that went away to come home

22:47

then and you really were hoping

22:50

nearly as a neutral just that they would

22:52

see it out just to see something different.

22:55

This is why on what we were

22:57

talking about earlier, it wasn't

23:00

really a pretty result. It might have

23:02

been an ugly one but it was

23:05

the result for Embarassa. To add to

23:07

that, did anyone see Emma Byrne's commentary

23:09

over Bonamati going off? Emma's

23:12

like, oh, she's injured. She's injured.

23:15

She might need to stretch her hair and then

23:17

Bonamati runs over to Patelis, give her a high

23:20

five before she runs on to the pitch.

23:23

I think that's everything you need to

23:25

know about the Barcelona performance in one

23:27

way because they're just pure on

23:30

the wind up but it worked well for them and I'm

23:32

sure they're the happier victors coming

23:34

away with the win there on that one. Oh

23:37

yes, I imagine they are very happy and also

23:39

very relieved because it's not a position that they're

23:41

used to going into these games. You don't have

23:43

to come back from a deficit.

23:46

Amy, we also had the other

23:48

semi-final there with Leon getting past

23:50

PSG and again, another great

23:52

game. I'm all back, I'm getting that third minute goal

23:55

and you thought, oh, Leon, I'm going to run away

23:57

with this now. Do we can get coming back in

23:59

it? then 81 minute

24:01

goal from De Mornay to seal it for

24:03

Leon just to make sure that it was

24:06

definitely going to be theirs. It

24:08

was good. Yeah, I was

24:10

really impressed with De Mornay in the game as well,

24:12

like 20 years old, first season at

24:14

Leon, massive sort of kind

24:17

of pressure to play for a club like that. And,

24:19

you know, the biggest game of the season so far,

24:21

I mean, she kind of stepped up. She was the

24:23

best player on the pitch, I thought. So I thought

24:25

it was deserving that she kind of won the game

24:27

with the second goal on the night anyway. But

24:30

yeah, I'm really excited to find them actually as

24:32

well because that feels like it's a

24:34

rivalry building between

24:37

Leon and Barca. It's been

24:39

quite spicy before. So yeah,

24:41

I'm really excited to see how that one goes. 100%

24:45

because you kind of

24:47

have Barca prematurely probably

24:49

crowned as the new champions of Europe and

24:52

Leon were on their way out. And then

24:54

of course, Leon came back and

24:56

proved that they weren't going anywhere and

24:58

we all should all pay a bit

25:00

more attention to them, no matter what

25:02

was going on behind the scenes. So

25:04

it'll definitely be interesting to see. Turning

25:06

attention now to the WSL, where there

25:09

wasn't a whole lot of goals, we have to

25:11

say over this weekend compared to the Champions League.

25:13

So we had three 1-1 draws,

25:15

one 1-0 win and Manchester

25:19

City, the only ones that decided that we deserve

25:22

to see a few goals after the Champions League.

25:25

And we'll start with Eversen

25:27

and Arsenal yesterday in

25:30

what was an interesting

25:32

game in that the first goal was

25:34

going until the 80th minute and Arsenal

25:37

thought they had got away with them.

25:39

And then Izzy Hobson jumps off the

25:41

line at local gal, 16 year

25:43

old playing for her club. Perfect

25:45

fairy tale story to get that goal against

25:48

Eversen or against Arsenal I should say. I'm

25:50

only 16 years old as well. I actually

25:52

didn't realise that until I looked up after

25:54

it. But yeah, definitely because seen as the

25:56

game, like Arsenal obviously probably dominated for quite

25:58

a lot of time. lot of it but

26:01

then to score a solo late, everything's still

26:03

in it. Like that stuff

26:06

of dreams there, 95 minutes

26:08

to come away with the

26:10

draw. Both

26:14

be delighted for I think in that circumstance.

26:16

I don't know Alanna, I that

26:18

are still supporting her and I wasn't that delighted. The

26:26

result all things considered as to how their

26:28

season is going. You know, there's

26:31

no title on the line anymore.

26:34

That early Champions League exit, they kind of

26:36

really needed a good run in the last

26:38

couple of games. You know, if you pay

26:40

City this weekend, we wanted

26:43

that good run of games to

26:45

just cement that no, we're not

26:47

losing touch with Chelsea and City

26:50

but that feels like they have.

26:52

You're not a competitive run down the

26:54

stretch. You know, you're probably, you can

26:56

say you're as motivated as you would

26:58

be but realistically you're probably not as

27:00

much. But yeah, I see what

27:03

you're saying that maybe they're pulling away

27:05

from the top teams that touch. I'm

27:08

not all that excited about

27:10

having the County

27:16

Cup though. I want the WSL title or an FA Cup

27:18

title or even an FA Cup, to

27:21

be honest, or a Champions League title. That's

27:24

in my mind. Amy, what did you

27:26

think about this from Arsenal not being

27:28

able to break down every sin until so long

27:30

and then conceding in those dying moments? I

27:33

think it's kind of what we've seen from Arsenal a lot of the

27:35

season just not putting chances away,

27:38

right? I was kind

27:40

of having this conversation with someone the other day,

27:42

like they have so many great attacking pieces that

27:45

you look at them on paper and they

27:47

should score a lot of goals but they

27:49

just cannot find the back of the net

27:51

some days and those days seem to come

27:53

quite often. I think one thing with Arsenal

27:55

though, a lot of the time when

27:57

you speak to players that have come back from an ACL,

27:59

they say sometimes it takes like six months to feel like

28:01

yourself again. And I think if you look at Arsenal's,

28:04

you know, ACL club, you know,

28:06

Medamar and Mead specifically in terms

28:08

of that attacking unit, like, and not

28:10

having them for large parts of the season

28:12

and then not having them at their best

28:14

because they're coming back from ACL, it's probably

28:16

not all clicking in the right place as

28:18

well. So I think

28:20

if I was delivering a message of hope

28:22

to you as an Arsenal fan, is that over

28:25

time, building in a pre-season with the

28:27

players back and fully fit and having

28:29

time to work together, I would

28:32

think and I would hope if I was an Arsenal fan

28:34

that things would click more and they

28:36

would look more dangerous as a unit because

28:38

we've seen glimpses of it, right? I mean,

28:40

look at that big game record this season. Like

28:42

they turned up and beaten Chelsea, beaten Man City,

28:44

beaten Man United. So it's just

28:46

that putting chances away on a

28:48

consistent basis is sort of like. I

28:51

think as well, possibly, Arsenal fans

28:53

got, not impatient is the wrong word,

28:56

but, you know, the likes of Bethany, Leland, some

28:58

came back and it seemed like they were back

29:00

to normal. But as the season has

29:02

gone on, we've seen that there's a

29:04

bit more inconsistency in that form, which

29:07

is totally understandable considering the injuries that they

29:09

both had to come back from and what they

29:11

have gone through to get there. I'm just

29:13

incredibly impatient and I want to see this Arsenal

29:15

team firing on all fronts because I think the

29:18

capacity is 100% there. And if

29:20

you look at the squad, it's totally measurable

29:22

to the other ones. It's

29:24

just frustrating that those injuries are still

29:26

a little bit of a lingering issue for

29:28

them. But hopefully next

29:30

season, as you say, Amy, once they've had

29:33

a little bit of preseason time, quick jaunt

29:35

over to Australia will help them all recover

29:37

beautifully, I'm sure. Alana,

29:39

Manchester United, glancing

29:42

by Leicester City, Elbatun

29:44

getting an 83rd minute

29:46

shot against them there. I've been

29:49

quite impressed with Leicester in general this

29:51

season. And this is probably one of

29:53

those games where it can

29:56

go 50-50 for United, whether they actually

29:58

managed to get that goal. but

30:00

means they got all three points.

30:03

Yeah, definitely. I think a bit of a get out

30:05

of jail of free card with the Ellicottne, Honda,

30:08

both, all together. If

30:10

they didn't have that, you'd probably be saying

30:12

kind of the same thing as to with

30:14

Arsenal, you know, that they need to be putting

30:16

away these games if they're to

30:18

be challenging properly. Obviously, you know,

30:21

fourth place, three points against, above

30:23

Liverpool and fifth. But

30:25

yeah, if there's a break in to

30:27

that, Hopped here again, let's

30:29

say, then what to be, I suppose,

30:31

putting up a better showcase. And,

30:34

but yeah, I'd say Leicester obviously are coming on leaps and

30:37

bounds on the other side of things. I'm

30:40

sure they'll have been happy to

30:42

have put on a performance, but yeah, once again, not

30:44

getting results on that one. And you got to kind

30:46

of feel sorry for like saying a little bit because

30:48

you did quite well with a lot of the shots.

30:50

I think there was something like 21, 22 shots and

30:53

total that you had to deal with. And there wasn't

30:55

really anything that you could do about that LA Toon shot.

30:59

Absolutely. It was your boss, is that? It

31:01

was the other thing. Like, you'd

31:05

know anything if you're hitness that's the way you should

31:07

be down there. That'd be going to the fair corner.

31:09

It came the other side. I'd watch too, you thought

31:11

about it anyway. No, I agree. I

31:14

was kind of like, you know, watching the Champions

31:16

League at the same time and just keeping up

31:18

to date across Twitter of, you know,

31:20

the goals going in. And yeah, when that one

31:22

came up, it was definitely one of the better

31:24

ones that I saw my time while I was

31:27

giving a little side screw. Yeah,

31:30

I think, as well as

31:32

for someone like Toon, if you're

31:34

an England supporter or a Manchester

31:36

United one as well, it's the sort

31:38

of goal that you want to see her scoring,

31:41

even if it is towards the latter end

31:43

of the season. She's had a

31:45

difficult enough season as has the entirety of

31:47

Manchester United. And I think that's the little

31:49

like spark that they want her to find

31:51

to get back and the little bit of, I

31:55

suppose, the magic that she had, especially

31:57

that summer of the Euros for England

31:59

and. what proceeded it and proceeded it

32:01

as well with the club. So if

32:04

I'm sure Karen Dugan is sitting somewhere being like Kathleen,

32:06

say nice things about Manchester United, but like a

32:08

lot of you're totally right in terms of

32:10

they're going to need to do a lot

32:12

more to keep track, like Arsenal around 34

32:14

points at the moment and United around 35.

32:17

So there is still a sizable enough gap

32:20

there if you want to start challenging for the

32:22

Champions League. And we thought they were going to

32:24

do that last year and then sold some key

32:26

players and that did not happen. And

32:28

also with the likes of Spurs and

32:31

Liverpool breathing down their throats as well. They're

32:33

going to want to get on and

32:35

move and find some excellent

32:37

start players. Amy,

32:40

going to look at Spurs.

32:42

So they had a draw

32:44

against Brighton and they

32:46

also have that FA Cup final that's just

32:48

a fortnight away. Good

32:51

character from them on the day? Yeah,

32:54

I think it was quite an evenly matched game.

32:56

I think Brighton are probably a better side than

32:59

the table says

33:01

and the season says. It's been a bit of a

33:03

weird season for them, but they've got some really big

33:06

plays and they've got Elizabeth Tell and what season

33:08

she's having, like the numbers that she's put up

33:10

for a team that's gone up

33:12

and down, up and down, struggle. She's

33:15

just a massive credit. And I think when you've got a

33:17

player like that, you can kind of put the ball in

33:19

the back of the net, you know,

33:21

a drop of a heart then. You're

33:23

always in with the chance of getting a decent result.

33:25

It's funny how many of the goals this weekend as

33:28

well all came as like 80th minute or

33:30

81st minute equalizers. It seemed to be a bit

33:32

of a theme of the weekend, Alana. It's

33:35

interesting, Amy, what you're saying there about

33:37

Brighton being a different or a better team

33:40

than possibly the table says. This is something we used

33:42

to talk to Emma Byrne about quite a bit.

33:44

So obviously she would know the Brighton team quite

33:46

well and be in and around them. And

33:49

she would say she always wasn't sure what

33:51

was the little missing thing

33:54

because on paper they

33:56

do a lot of things very well.

33:58

But it seems like they find it

34:00

really hard to do. build a cohesive

34:02

consistent team that can actually go on a

34:04

good run of form? I

34:07

think some of it comes down to pace

34:09

as well. You know, to set my off

34:11

the lips this season, probably,

34:13

it's certainly blindsided a lot of people

34:15

that, you know, watch the BRSL every

34:17

week because like

34:19

it just takes time to climb the table

34:22

and it takes time to put all the

34:24

pieces together and it's a tricky league and

34:26

you get, you know, especially when you're kind

34:28

of outside of the real consistent sort of

34:30

top two really this season, you are going

34:32

to drop points here, there and everywhere like

34:34

that's just the way the league is. I

34:36

think it just needs patience

34:39

and a project and get a manager in

34:41

that's going to sort of stick with for

34:43

a few years and build something because, you

34:45

know, they are a better team than the

34:47

table suggests when you actually look at the

34:50

quality in the squad and look at that

34:52

on paper. The pieces are there

34:54

to put together something better than what we've seen

34:56

this season but, you know, when you're chopping and

34:58

changing coaches, they definitely doesn't help. So they just

35:01

need to find the right person to take them

35:03

forward. I think that's the issue. What

35:05

sort of coach do you think it is that they need

35:07

like of the characters that are in the WSL or

35:09

even around European or American football

35:11

at the moment? Yeah, I think

35:13

they just need to find somebody who's done

35:16

something quite impressive. You know,

35:18

you look around and find somebody

35:20

who is over time, you

35:22

know, a great group of players,

35:24

maybe picks off, you know, players

35:26

from not so much the

35:29

top manager at Lyon or whatever, spend a lot

35:31

of money to, you know, make a

35:33

squad. Somebody that can work against the

35:35

like big teams, you know, kind of pick people up,

35:37

not on the cheap as if they're not going to

35:39

invest but, you know, not you're not going to be

35:41

able to achieve the biggest star if you're not playing

35:43

champions. Look at somebody who

35:45

can kind of develop the young players and bring them

35:47

through because Brighton have, you know, really good sort of

35:49

structure of bringing those young players through. There's

35:52

somebody that you can just grow with. Like you

35:54

don't need to bring in massive huge names. You

35:56

can bring in somebody who's got a lot of

35:58

potential to grow with the squad. I think

36:00

the way that the club kind of builds, there's a lot

36:02

of potential there with the investment that they put in. Like

36:04

I just said about the way they bring young players in

36:06

and some of the scouting they've done and players that they

36:09

brought in is really good as well. You just need to

36:11

find the coach that's kind of going in the same

36:13

direction as all the other stuff is at the club.

36:16

And they could do really good things in this

36:18

league. That's the thing that's

36:20

always confused me about Brighton is they seem to have a massive amount

36:22

of patience when it comes to growing players

36:25

or individuals within the squad, but when it comes to

36:27

the managerial side of things, there's less of that

36:29

patience there, but I suppose it's probably easier when

36:33

you're putting more resources into developing, say

36:35

a couple of different people compared to

36:37

just one, it's probably easier to put

36:39

any failure or the games that

36:41

you feel like you should have won on that person rather than

36:43

where more of

36:45

your resources and more of your money is going. So

36:48

it's more likely to make you look a little bit

36:50

stupid. But that's just

36:52

a pure outside observation. Alana

36:55

West Ham made sure that they secured

36:58

themselves in the league and that Bristol

37:00

City were going down with a 95th

37:02

minute equalizer in today's

37:05

episode of, how late can

37:07

you score an equalizer? If

37:12

you're West Ham, how are you reflecting

37:14

on this season? I mean, I'm sure

37:16

it was just a breath

37:18

of relief for the entire squad when they realized that

37:20

they didn't have to worry anymore. It seemed pretty likely

37:22

it was going to be Bristol, but you

37:25

never know in these situations. Rhianne

37:27

Skinner, what does she have to do over

37:29

the next couple of weeks and months to

37:31

get this West Ham team's confidence up? Because

37:35

at the start of the season, we were all saying,

37:37

this is a team that could do something really good

37:39

in the league and here we are. Yeah,

37:42

I think it's just kind of built on that.

37:44

Obviously they do have players who can do it

37:46

for them. It's like getting them to show up

37:49

every day. Even like a today from an Ireland

37:51

perspective, like Jess Dude was really good for them

37:53

after weekend and husband throughout the season. But coming

37:55

back to the ICL, she's

37:57

only back fully this year.

38:00

and it'll take her time to

38:02

fully implement that way too. But

38:04

yeah, they obviously made some signings

38:06

in the January window. I'm sure

38:08

they'll be looking to do the

38:10

same again now come the summer.

38:12

But they'll definitely will have to

38:14

strengthen that way because, and

38:16

say to only secure that one

38:19

95th minute, I'd say your

38:22

heart wouldn't be able to hurt. I don't know

38:24

how you'd have the nerves with that one. And

38:28

Amy, finally, we have Manchester

38:30

City absolutely hammering Bristol

38:32

in what is a solid

38:35

confirmation of their relegation from the WSL. I

38:37

have a particular soft spot for Bristol. I

38:39

just love the way that their fans have

38:42

supported them despite having such a difficult season.

38:44

And then of course, we have our Irish

38:46

representation in there too, which we like to

38:48

see. Yeah,

38:50

I think I'm intrigued to see how they get

38:52

on after this now because they have

38:54

a really young squad. They have a young manager. They've

38:56

done really good things at kind of building the fan

38:58

base. I think it was confirmed

39:01

after the game that they'll play their games at

39:03

Ashton Gate again next season. So

39:06

they're building something good. And relegation

39:08

doesn't have to be the end of that. I

39:11

think at the start of the season, they

39:13

were going to be up against it.

39:15

And you just spoke about that. I'm

39:18

on West Ham's side and in play

39:20

is genuine. I think that's kind of

39:22

the difference really, like Bristol couldn't go

39:24

out and get this Katrina's play. And

39:26

players like that, I know that not

39:29

me, which is probably not had the

39:31

impact because of injuries. And but you

39:33

could tell like, Gory really kind of

39:35

boosted West Ham when she was fit.

39:37

And Bristol just couldn't kind of go out

39:39

and get that colour of player to help

39:43

drive them towards safety. But

39:45

like I said, they've got a really young squad, a

39:47

young manager. And I think if they can keep those

39:49

young players, because that's the thing. I think if I'm a,

39:52

you know, a mid table, you know, maybe even a

39:54

little bit higher to be a soccer. I'm probably

39:56

looking at Bristol going down and thinking, I wonder

39:58

if we can get, you know. XYZ

40:00

those players, you know, they'd be a good addition

40:02

to some calling players in there. I mean, I've watched

40:04

them, they can, you know, they're a good team,

40:06

it's a good player by good components. So if

40:09

they can keep it together, then, you know,

40:11

they'll, they'll certainly hope with everything they're building that they

40:13

can come back. I

40:15

think that's a frustrating thing with Bristol watching them.

40:17

There was a couple of times this season where

40:19

they had the game in the palm of their

40:22

hand and they were going to get a point

40:24

or maybe even three points and they just let

40:26

it slip. But it wasn't like they were getting

40:28

absolutely annihilated week in week out. This

40:30

is probably one of the bigger results that they've seen. A lot of the

40:32

scores were quite close. Yeah.

40:35

And this was close until 60 minutes. It took

40:37

Mary Howard, you know, finding, you know, top corner

40:39

from the edge of the box to break the deadlock.

40:42

Like, you know, city couldn't kind of put

40:44

that chance. They couldn't really create it

40:46

too much in the first half match.

40:49

So now they just, you know, they create a lot

40:52

more, kind of a better look on Bristol's goal for

40:54

a little bit. Yeah, I've

40:56

seen some games this season where I'm like, oh, you know, they're going

40:58

to get a point here. And maybe

41:00

that comes down to inexperience a little bit with

41:02

the young squad. You know, they've got some good

41:04

experience. I like Rachel Furness and stuff like that.

41:07

But there are a lot of young

41:09

players in there and, you know, maybe that's part of

41:11

it. But also as part of the experience of

41:13

just being a professional footballer, I guess, and learning. And

41:15

that experience will do a lot of them good in

41:18

a way like in the cold light of day,

41:20

maybe not right now when they've been relegated and

41:23

they're not particularly happy. And

41:25

I think it is an experience that

41:28

can certainly benefit a young player

41:30

just in terms of mentality and coming back and

41:32

learning. Maybe

41:35

in terms of the team that they will be waiting

41:37

at on their way down, Crystal Palace being brought up,

41:39

we had a bit of a chat about them at

41:41

the start of the show, just in the context of

41:43

the Irish players. But for anyone

41:45

listening who maybe doesn't get the opportunity here

41:47

in Ireland to watch all that much championship,

41:49

what can they expect from this Crystal Palace

41:51

team coming into the league? Well,

41:53

do you know what? I'm interested to find out

41:56

because I think making that step up because, you

41:58

know, we can talk about how we played the

42:00

championship and that's great. You look at how Bristol

42:02

did in the championship last season and they did

42:04

really well. But making that jump is,

42:06

you know, it's about what's the club going

42:08

to do in terms of like, is it,

42:11

you know, total

42:14

turnover of their squad

42:16

or is it just adding a few pieces

42:18

here and there? Like what

42:20

pieces do they add? You know, where

42:22

they had season WL experience, you know,

42:25

get a load of unproven talent. Like it's such

42:28

a big summer to try and stay in

42:30

the league because it is difficult and it's

42:32

getting more difficult. I think I remember writing

42:34

at some point during the season that

42:37

the team promoted from the championship hadn't

42:39

been relegated like on the first going

42:41

in quite a while actually when you

42:43

think about, you know, Villa Spurs, Leicester,

42:45

Man United. So, but it

42:48

is kind of showing that it is getting more

42:50

difficult because of those really big names

42:52

that are coming in. So I think the club does

42:54

need to invest and just make sure that squad is

42:56

ready to play in the WSL because it will

42:59

be tight at the bottom. And it's just about

43:02

how they best prepare that team to be able to

43:04

stay in because there's clearly a good team. I mean,

43:06

look, they've won the championship. They've got great players in

43:08

there and they played well all season, but it is

43:10

just about preparing it for the top five. Yeah.

43:13

I think even they were kind of admitting that

43:15

themselves whenever they had one at the weekend,

43:17

you know, kind of saying, we will celebrate and enjoy

43:19

this for the moment. But we know there's a lot

43:21

of hard work ahead and even there was a feature

43:24

in there are chimes here with

43:26

Hayley Nolan and her dream of playing in

43:28

the WSL. And she was saying, you

43:31

know, I can't exactly go and lie on

43:33

the beach for the summer and then go

43:35

up against Chelsea's best players like the Sam

43:37

Curry's and Beth Meese or whoever it is

43:39

of the world and just expect to be

43:41

fine. She's like, I know I have a long hard summer

43:43

ahead of me, but we'll enjoy it. We'll let them enjoy

43:45

it for like at least another couple of days, but think

43:48

about the hard work. Amy, thank you so much

43:50

for joining us. We really do appreciate it.

43:52

Anna Lana, you too. I look

43:55

forward to crying over Sinead Farley's

43:57

international retirement with you. very

44:00

soon. If anyone wants to get me,

44:02

you can get me on Twitter and

44:04

I will also commiserate with you. You

44:06

can also get the podcast at the

44:08

KoiGigpod on Twitter. We are always replying

44:11

to people there and answering any questions

44:13

you may or may not have. My KoiGig

44:16

podcast on the ball is sponsored by

44:18

Cadbury Official Snack Partners, the Republic of

44:21

Ireland Women's National Team. Thank you all

44:23

very much for listening and we will

44:25

be back very soon. The

44:28

KoiGig on Off the Ball in

44:30

association with Cadbury, Official Snack Partner

44:32

of the Republic of Ireland Women's

44:34

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