Not that Aoife Mannion needed reminding of Sam Kerr’s qualities, but at Wembley on Sunday, in front of a record crowd of 77,390, the Manchester United defender was witness to yet another example of the Australian captain’s knack of deciding big games — this time the FA Cup final.
Kerr turned home Pernille Harder’s perfectly weighted cross in the 68th minute to give Chelsea their third FA Cup in a row, against a United side playing in their first ever final.
Mannion, who came on for the last 10 minutes of the game, could yet end up being part of a Republic of Ireland defence tasked with marking Kerr when they play in Sydney, Australia, at July’s World Cup opener. It could be a long 90 minutes against a player who won her second successive Football Writers’ Association footballer of the year award last week.
Like Mannion, Claire O’Riordan is targeting one of the defenders’ slots in Vera Pauw’s World Cup squad, the Limerick woman included in the 27-strong group that travelled to the United States last month for two friendlies. She didn’t get a chance to add to her 17 caps, only making three appearances in all under Pauw so far, but she’ll hope her current form for Celtic will give her a chance.
While defending is her chief duty, O’Riordan managed to score two critical goals in her last two games for the club, the first coming in a 3-1 win against league leaders Glasgow City at Celtic Park last Thursday, the attendance of 9,553 the largest ever for a women’s club game in Scotland.
And then she headed home again in Sunday’s 2-1 win away to Hibs, a result that sent Celtic top of the table — briefly. They were overtaken by Rangers on goal difference (by a single goal) later in the afternoon following their 6-0 win against Hearts. And then Glasgow City moved two points clear of both clubs when they beat Partick Thistle, their winner coming four minutes from time.
Amber Barrett
It’s D-Day next Sunday when the final round of Premier League games will be played. O’Riordan’s Celtic are at home to Hearts, while Claire Walsh and Emily Whelan’s Glasgow City take on reigning champions Rangers, with all three clubs in contention for the title.
O’Riordan joined Celtic from Duisburg last summer after four years playing in Germany, Amber Barrett is now the only Irish player in the Bundesliga. But what was already a difficult season for the Donegal women met its inevitable conclusion on Saturday when a 5-1 defeat by Leverkusen confirmed Turbine Potsdam’s relegation.
Barrett joined Potsdam from Cologne last summer, the striker initially played at right-back, oddly, and then getting limited game time since returning from a shoulder injury she picked up in December. When she came on for the last 20 minutes on Saturday, Potsdam were already 5-1 down.
It’s an almighty tumble for a club that won six Bundesliga titles and two Champions Leagues between 2004 and 2010, among their former players Ada Hegerberg, the first winner of the women’s Ballon d’Or. But as a women’s club, they struggled to keep up with teams under the umbrella and financial clout of the likes of Wolfsburg and Bayern Munich. Barrett, six months on from the greatest night of her footballing life, has now experienced one of her career’s biggest lows.
