Carla Ward has issued a rallying call to Irish fans to come and support Ireland tomorrow night for an ‘unbelievable occasion.’

Ward particularly praised the crowd at Páirc Uí Chaoimh who ‘make an awful lot of noise’ in support of Ireland. The Girls in Green face Netherlands on Friday night, knowing that victory would set up a winner takes all World Cup qualifying clash against France in Grenoble next week.

Ward spoke to the media alongside her captain, Katie McCabe and The Halfway Line was there to hear from her.

Ireland ‘strive to be better all the time’ says Carla Ward

Ireland will be without both Denise O’Sullivan and Emily Murphy for the visit of Netherlands to Cork. Aside from that Ward explained the status of the rest of the squad,

“Yeah, fully fit for a full bill of health, which we’re delighted with” reported Ward.

With direct qualification still in Ireland’s hands Ward was asked if she considered that a realistic possibility,

“Look, we always just strive to be better all the time, and that’s what we’ll continue to do, no matter who’s in front of us” Ward asserted. “We want to be better in everything we do.

“This group, as I always talk about, they’re ambitious, they’re hungry to kick on, and it’ll be no different. We’ll take one game at a time, as I keep saying.

“Tomorrow night is another opportunity to test ourselves against the very best, and come the end of that, we’ll see where we’re at.”

Carla Ward ‘admires’ Netherlands ‘unbelievable squad’

After defeat in Utrecht, there were some murmurings of discontentment between the Irish and Dutch camps. Post match it was noted that the head coaches did not shake hands, Ward was asked about if there was any lingering bad feeling,

“No, not at all” Ward explained. “I think that question was posed to me rather than me directly coming out of that, if you remember.

“But look, there was a few things that, yeah, look, that happened. It happens, club, country, that’s that’s football, you know. There’s always going to be little moments that you try and get the extra edge.

“I’ve done it plenty of times in my career, so no, it’s another game of football. I admire the Netherlands a lot. I got a good relationship with their manager, and they’ve got an unbelievable squad, so [there is] no added motivation [to get one] over them. We’re coming up against a top, top side.”

Carla Ward proud of the ‘different side’ to Ireland’s game

Ward was asked after two wins from four in League A and two narrow defeats if the perception of Ireland’s national team was changing,

“I think that historically no one’s wanted to play against Ireland” Ward proudly stated. “Because you know, as a nation, it’s gritty, there’s a determination, and I think Ireland have always been difficult to beat.

“Now, I think there’s an element of maybe difficult to play against. I think we’ve shown a different side of our game where we can go and try and win games now.

“So, yeah, look, I think that there will be an element of there’s always going to be respect for Ireland for the way that you know over the years they’ve defended and done tremendously well, but I think there’s another side to it now in the fact that we can go and hurt teams as well.”

Ward delights in ‘noise’ and ‘energy’ of Cork crowd

Cork has been a happy hunting ground for the Irish team of late. Ireland have won both their matches they’ve played at Páirc Uí Chaoimh in recent years. One, a 1-0 victory over Slovenia, the other a 3-1 win over France, Ward delighted in that record,

“[We’ve had] two wins from two” Carla Ward said. “And I think you know everyone loves being down here and I think the people of Cork make an awful lot of noise, and we heard that last year.

“If we can, if we can get those numbers up in these next couple of days, I think it’s going to be an unbelievable occasion.”

In both those victories, players from Cork stood up and played key roles. Denise O’Sullivan opened the scoring against France and Saoirse Noonan nabbed the winner against Slovenia.

The Halfway Line asked Ward if the tendency of Cork natives to excel at Pairc Ui Chaoimh would factor into her thinking when selecting the starting side,

“No, look, I’m blessed with a strong squad” Ward said. “They can all do a job, naturally everybody likes playing in their hometown, of course. You know, you’ve got Megan Connolly as well. She’s done tremendously well this campaign. She really has, and probably doesn’t get the credit she deserves.

“But yeah, look, I think everyone wants to play down here. It doesn’t matter where you’re from, everybody knows, you know, two wins down here, lots of noise, lots of, you know, energy down here. So I think doesn’t matter where these players are from, they all want to play.”

You can still purchase tickets for Ireland vs Netherlands tomorrow night, which kicks off at 19:30pm.