Soccer

West Ham cut Republic of Ireland contingent by allowing Izzy Atkinson to join Crystal Palace and loaning Jessie Stapleton to Reading

Katie McCabe captains Arsenal to 2-0 win away to Liverpool, for whom Niamh Fahey was back in defence

Ireland’s Izzy Atkinson: while it is a blow for the former Shelbourne player to drop out of the WSL and into the Championship she was spending so much time on the bench at West Ham it was doing nothing for her international prospects. Photograph: Nikola Krstic/Inpho
Ireland’s Izzy Atkinson: while it is a blow for the former Shelbourne player to drop out of the WSL and into the Championship she was spending so much time on the bench at West Ham it was doing nothing for her international prospects. Photograph: Nikola Krstic/Inpho
Mary Hannigan
Sun Jan 28 2024 - 20:51

While the most eye-catching move in the women’s January transfer window was that of Colombian striker Mayra Ramirez from Levante to Chelsea for a world record fee of €450,000, Irish eyes were more focused on departures from West Ham, the WSL club halving their Republic of Ireland contingent by allowing Izzy Atkinson to join Crystal Palace on a permanent basis and loaning Jessie Stapleton to Reading.

Those moves reduced the WSL’s Irish representation to 11, just six of that number – Katie McCabe, Courtney Brosnan, Heather Payne, Megan Connolly, Niamh Fahey and Jess Ziu – starting for their clubs on Sunday, giving Eileen Gleeson some concerns about the amount of game-time her players are getting.

While it’s a blow for former Shelbourne players Atkinson and Stapleton to drop out of the WSL and into the Championship they were spending so much time on the bench at West Ham it was doing nothing for their international prospects.

Both made their debuts for their new clubs on Sunday, with mixed fortunes – Stapleton impressed in Reading’s draw away to Lewes, when they scored twice in the last 10 minutes to earn a 2-2 draw, while Atkinson played the first 65 minutes of Palace’s 1-0 home defeat by Charlton.

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Ziu, yet another Shelbourne “old girl”, is having more joy at West Ham, starting in their bottom-of-the-table WSL meeting with Bristol City on Sunday, setting up one of their goals in a critical 2-1 win that lifted them three points clear of Bristol. Megan Walsh, though, continues to play second fiddle to Australian goalkeeper Mackenzie Arnold.

McCabe captained Arsenal to a 2-0 win away to Liverpool, for whom Fahey was back in their defence, a result that keeps them within three points of defending champions Chelsea.

Back in the English Championship, there was considerable Irish interest in the meeting of Birmingham City and London City Lionesses, Jamie Finn, Lucy Quinn and Lily Agg starting for the former, Ruesha Littlejohn and Nicole Douglas for the latter.

Douglas, a former England underage international who joined London from Washington Spirit last week, was called up to the Irish squad by Vera Pauw back in 2020, the 23-year-old still with aspirations to earn a senior cap. She ended up on the losing side on Sunday, though, Birmingham winning 1-0. Louise Quinn missed the game with a shoulder injury, while Agg went off injured. Gleeson will hope they are hale and hearty again in time for next month’s friendly against Wales.

Meanwhile, Marissa Sheva, Douglas’s Washington Spirit team-mate last season, has been left out of their squad for the upcoming season. Having been omitted from the Irish panel by Gleeson of late, she is now in need of a new opportunity if she is to add to her seven Irish caps.

Mary Hannigan

Mary Hannigan

Mary Hannigan is a sports writer with The Irish Times