Women’s soccer round-up: Eileen Gleeson hoping Noelle Murray’s magic will rub off on Ireland squad

Just less than a month away from her team’s Euro 2025 qualifying double-header against Sweden, Eileen Gleeson was on watching brief at home on Saturday, the Republic of Ireland manager in the stands for the Premier Division game between Shelbourne and Bohemians. Having seen her Irish side fail to score in their last four outings, she might wish she could sprinkle some Noelle Murray-like stardust on her attack.

The last of Murray’s 11 caps came a whole seven years ago, and at 34 it’s highly unlikely she’ll add to that tally, but she produced yet another of her trademark worldies to win the game and notch up her 100th goal for Shels – the first woman to achieve the feat for the club.

Erin McLaughlin was in scoring form too, the Peamount United player – one of five home-based call-ups since Gleeson succeeded Vera Pauw – getting the double that gave the champions victory over Shamrock Rovers. Galway United are still the team to catch, though, a record crowd of 2,861 for the women’s league seeing them maintain their four-point lead at the top of the table after their 4-0 win over DLR Waves.

As it stands, Caitlin Hayes and Amber Barrett are battling it out for the honour of being the highest-scoring members of Gleeson’s squad this season. Considering Hayes is a central defender, that’s some achievement. She got her 17th, in all competitions, for Celtic last Wednesday in their 2-2 draw with Glasgow City. With four games to go, they’re level on points with Rangers at the top of the table – and they play Rangers at noon on Monday.

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Barrett, meanwhile, brought her tally for the season to 16 when she scored twice in Standard Liège’s 4-2 win over Genk, a result that keeps them within two points of Anderlecht in the race for the Belgian Super League title. And Diane Caldwell is in with a shout of a league medal too, the defender starting in FC Zurich’s win over FC Luzern that moved them in to the semi-finals of the Swiss league play-offs.

The performance of the weekend might well have belonged to Courtney Brosnan, though. Sky Sports named her as their player of the match after Everton’s 2-2 draw with Spurs, at least three of her saves of the outstanding kind. She’s having the season of her life, only Megan Connolly (Bristol City), Anna Patten (Aston Villa), both ever-presents for their clubs, and Katie McCabe (Arsenal) making more WSL appearances in the current campaign.

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