ARSENAL AND Liverpool produced five-star displays to cruise into the fifth round of the Women’s FA Cup.
England forward Beth Mead and Stina Blackstenius both scored twice as the Gunners thrashed Bristol City 5-0, with Frida Maanum also on target for the home side in a game that saw Irish youngster Lia O’Leary make her debut for the Championship club.
Sam Kerr scored her first goal for the club as Liverpool also ran out 5-0 winners at West Ham, who had Amber Tysiak sent off for a foul on Taylor Hinds in the 38th minute.
The home side were already 2-0 down at that point following an own goal from Camila Saez and Ireland international Leanne Kiernan’s cool finish from a tight angle, with Grace Fisk and Lucy Parry also on the scoresheet before Kerr completed the rout.
Brighton ended their dismal recent run of form with a 4-1 win over Championship side Durham, the home side racing into a 3-0 lead after just 21 minutes thanks to goals from Bruna Vilamala and Guro Bergsvand either side of a Michelle Agyemang penalty.
Hannah Blake pulled one back for Durham in the second half, but Nikita Parris made it 4-1 in stopping time.
Everton knocked out last season’s runners-up Tottenham with a 2-0 win at Walton Hall Park, Kelly Gago scoring her first goal for the club and substitute Heather Payne sealing the victory in the 92nd minute.
Meanwhile, in Scotland, Payne’s Irish teammate Saoirse Noonan continued her fine individual season, hitting a brace in Celtic’s 6-0 victory over Queen’s Park.
Fantastic news for irish squad development.
@brian o’leary: Indeed, hopefully in the Irish system we can unearth another D’Arcy-O’driscoll combination. Barrett is a quality operator and a bit like Brad Thorn when he came the knowledge he imparted on others was excellent.
@brian o’leary: yes it is. During the 6 nations when 16 to 20 leinster players are in the sqaud the younger players will have someone of his calibre for them to learn from.
@Caballo Blanco: you have no idea what Thorn did other than put Toner on the bench. What we do know is Leinster poached McCarthy from Connacht and the knowledge imparted on Beirne, Moloney and Roux got 2 released and one became a backup player.
@chris mcdonnell: I guess one will be trying to learn from the stands instead of the pitch? Are the leinster coach’s in the ireland squad for the 6 nations,?
@brian o’leary: when ringrose, henshaw, keenan, Gibsonpark, lowe, frawley, obrien, and maybe larmour and pendergast are away with Ireland, Barrett will be there with the younger players who are left. If they don’t learn from a world class player either in training or on the pitch along side we’ll that’s their loss. Not really sure what you mean about the leinster coaches but hey
@chris mcdonnell: I get that, it’s just that I see game time as the ultimate training/development tool and some of our guys will now be robbed of that experience. I’m more concerned about the high end games where there is more to be learned than the urc during the six nations.
The coaching point was that we should have would class coaches to do the coaching, if not, then maybe spend the budget there?
@brian o’leary: I have a feeling he’ll be thrown in at outhalf for the big European games – Leo doesn’t want to mess around this year
@brian o’leary: Why??
That’s a relief; I was worried about Leinster’s lack of strength-in-depth to cover the position.
@John Coffey: Yep we need top cover for our Centres during the International windows. Help the young lads on no end.
Does anyone know why we’re playing NZ on a Friday night in November? What happened to having all the Autumn Internationals kicking off at 5.30 on a Saturday?