As Vera Pauw and Louise Quinn wrapped up their media duties in the stand, the rest of the squad and backroom team waited on the sideline for training to begin.
It was the day before Ireland’s final Group A game against Slovakia.
A play-off place had already been secured, thanks to a one-goal victory over Finland a few days earlier, but something big was still riding on the outcome in Senec, half-an-hour outside Bratislava.
Win and Ireland would skip a round of the play-offs. It would also improve their odds of qualifying without the hassle of an intercontinental play-off in New Zealand next February.
So, the stakes were still high. But there were no signs of nerves as the players laughed and chatted while Pauw spoke to RTE’s Tony O’Donoghue.
As this reporter shot some pictures and video of the happy scenes, Amber Barrett called out.
“Put this on the front page,” she said. Barrett wrapped her arm around Chloe Mustaki.
Just before the picture was taken, Mustaki popped two fingers up over Barrett’s head.
Barrett saw the snap on Twitter after training and replied: “Still suitable for the front page I think.”
A small thing, but a measure of the spirit within the squad, the bond that carried them through a tricky group to a play-off and, just last week, to a historic World Cup qualification.
This was the first campaign in which the Girls in Green were followed away from home by a large media presence.
The belief that they were on the verge of something special wasn’t confined to within the walls of their dressing room.
What follows are some of the highlights of a history-making campaign.
PSYCHIC ANNIE
Meet the young girl who quickly became Ireland’s good luck charm.
Annie Mulholland (7) was brought to Gothenburg by dad Alan for the Sweden game in April, where she was interviewed before the game by Newstalk’s Aisling O’Reilly.
Annie was asked for her prediction against a Sweden side ranked second in the world, a team that hadn’t dropped a competitive point at home in 12 years.
“1-1,” said the young Newbridge Town footballer confidently.
Aisling made sure she got Annie’s predictions on the record ahead of the crucial September games at home to Finland and away to Slovakia.
1-0, she correctly predicted both times.
So, we bumped into Annie outside Hampden Park last week, where she proudly wore the jersey Leanne Kiernan gave her after the Slovakia win, she was asked once again for the outcome.
“1-0 to Ireland,” she said. Incredible - and surely deserving of a seat on the team charter to Australia or New Zealand next summer!
RECORD BREAKERS
Amber Barrett has etched her name into Irish footballing folklore with her play-off winning goal against Scotland.
But it wasn’t the first time in this campaign that she scored a historic goal.
With 89 minutes on the clock, Barrett scored the 10th in Ireland’s 11-0 win over Georgia last November.
Her goal meant the previous record win of 9-0 (achieved against Montenegro in 2016 and Malta in 2003) had been surpassed.
GEORGIAN GRIEF
This is a personal one about the horrors of Europe’s summer of airport chaos.
After a cancelled Lufthansa flight on Friday and a delay on Saturday, which meant a missed connection from Munich, we made it into Tbilisi on Monday morning, with hours to spare before kick-off against Georgia.
It was worth the hassle to see Ireland notch up another hammering - this time by nine goals.
Ireland goalkeeper Courtney Brosnan might have been spared the trip, as she spent most of the game alone in an otherwise empty Irish half.
VERA’S COURAGE
The world of football was rocked just days after Ireland’s 9-0 win in Georgia when Vera Pauw made the shocking and heartbreaking allegation that she had been raped and sexually abused during the 1980s by three men within Dutch football.
Her demeanour in the post-match interview in Georgia had given nothing away.
“For 35 years I have kept a secret from the world, from my family, from my team-mates, my players, my colleagues and, I can now accept, from myself,” Pauw wrote on social media.
“Even those closest to me have not known of the rape I endured at the hands of a prominent football official when I was a young player.
“Later two sexual assaults by two other men were added to this record. All three men were employed within Dutch football at the time of these incidents.”
Later that month, while working as an analyst on RTE’s coverage of the European Championships, Pauw thanked the people of Ireland for their support.
“The fact people have welcomed me and given me so much love and support, it was something I could hardly handle,” she said.
“Especially the people in Ireland, everyone made such an effort to really write something to me. I’ve seen most of the messages, it is incredible.
“People said actually, come here and we will make sure you are safe.
“The key thing is, here in Ireland I always felt safe. There has not been one moment I didn’t feel safe.
“Feeling a nation take care of me, that is something I could hardly grasp. I want to express my gratitude for that. It makes me strong. I stay on my feet because of it.”
With great courage and the support of her players, she led Ireland into the crucial September games against Finland and Slovakia.
AMBER’S AMBITION
Rewind to April 2018 and Amber Barrett was preparing for two crucial World Cup qualifiers at home to Slovakia and the Netherlands.
Colin Bell’s Ireland side had made a stunning start to their campaign, winning away to Northern Ireland and Slovakia, and drawing in Nijmegen against a Dutch side fresh from winning the European Championships.
A few days before the games, the then-22-year-old appeared on a podcast for Buzz.ie.
She went on to score the winner against Slovakia in Tallaght. Four days later, however, the Girls in Green fell to a 2-0 defeat to the Netherlands and the World Cup hopes faded.
Fast forward to October 2022 and Barrett made a 66th-minute entrance at Hampden Park for the injured Heather Payne.
Six minutes later, Niamh Fahey headed the ball clear to Denise O’Sullivan, who turned and spotted the run of the Donegal ace.
Her pass was perfect, Barrett’s first touch even better. Then the pace that marked her out as a promising young runner kicked in.
Barrett sped past the last defender and before the goalkeeper could set herself for the shot, the ball was on its way inside the right-hand post.
The finish, compared by Damien Duff to legendary Brazilian Romario’s trademark shooting style, was iconic.
Kids across the country will be attempting to replicate it this weekend.
As for the celebration…
Back we go to April 2018 and Barrett was replying to a question on what World Cup qualification would mean to her.
She was reminded that 2002 was the last time an Ireland team made it to a senior World Cup.
“I think I was in first class at the time, maybe senior infants,” she said. “I think we watched one of the games in school. That was a long time ago.
“I suppose it’s a cliche and everyone says it would be a dream come true, but it genuinely would be a dream come true.
“Everybody did the Robbie Keane (celebration) out in the garden when they were playing growing up, everyone did the Damien Duff bow, everybody has these aspirations.”
While it wasn’t her intention to perform a goal celebration for the ages — it was simply a beautiful tribute to 10 tragic souls from Creeslough, a town so close to her heart — Barrett conjured up her own moment of magic on Tuesday night.
Just over 3,500 fans turned up for the Slovakia match in April 2018, while 4,000 watched the defeat to the Netherlands.
Decent figures at the time, but they were blown out of the water by the 6,952 that turned up in Tallaght Stadium last month for the play-off-sealing win over Finland.
And last Tuesday, a Scottish record crowd of 10,800 were at Hampden Park to see Barrett fire Ireland to a first ever World Cup finals.
It would have been more had the game not clashed with Celtic’s Champions League defeat to RB Leipzig a few kilometres away.
Over four years ago, Barrett, fresh to senior international football, having only made her debut seven months earlier, summed up the drive for widespread recognition.
This, remember, was six months before the 20x20 campaign kicked off.
“It’s not supporting women’s football anymore, you are supporting Ireland,” she told the Buzz Sports Show. “You are supporting an Irish team that has dreams and aspirations to go to a World Cup.”
Barrett added: “I think not only for us as female players, but for the country to get to another World Cup would be huge for us.
“It would be a tremendous achievement and it is something that everybody has in the backs of their minds. But we also know that as well as we have done so far, it’s still a fair bit off in the distance.”
Four and a half years, as it turns out.
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