IT WAS AN impressive first day at the new office for Aoife Mannion, a solid start in green.

The former England youth international took her opportunity to stake a real claim for inclusion in Vera Pauw’s World Cup-bound Ireland squad in yesterday’s 0-0 draw with China PR in Spain.

“I didn’t put the ball into my own net which is a good start,” she grinned afterwards.

“I didn’t stand out in a bad way.”

The opposite, indeed.

Mannion was one of three new recruits involved; Australia-born Deborah De La Harpe featuring in the first half and US native Marissa Sheva coming in for the second.

The Manchester United defender made her presence felt from the get-go. Playing alongside stalwart Louise Quinn and the versatile Megan Connolly as the three centre-halves in a back five, Mannion was extremely vocal throughout.

She was one of the loudest voices in a largely empty 7,500-seater stadium, energetic and confident on and off the ball, and showing great strength. There were no sign of nerves early on, as she established herself as one of Ireland’s most prominent players in Cadiz.

Her mother Kathleen, father Bernard, and sister Áine watched on from the stands, her parents hailing from Mayo and Galway respectively, before meeting and settling in Birmingham.

“They’d threatened to wear all sorts of Irish clothes but they turned up neutral, not wanting to draw attention,” she laughed. “They’re so happy.”

To Mannion’s right was Syndey FC wing-back De La Harpe. ‘DA’ appeared a little nervy early on, but came into the game more with a lot of the early action down her wing. She played a few nice balls through the lines, and did well to keep Wang Shanshan at bay at one stage as China threatened.

In the 27th minute, the duo had a golden opportunity to link up on the break but Mannion’s pass went astray, the only blot on the leading light’s copybook.

She was also heavily involved in a controversially chalked-off goal, but the robbery of that moment didn’t hamper a memorable debut.

“I enjoyed it,” Mannion beamed afterwards.

“What you’ve seen here is a bit of who I am: being aggressive on the ball, positive and a nice 1-v-1 defender. Hopefully that will be enough for Vera to want to use my services for Ireland duty.”

A warm embrace from Pauw as she made way in the 69th minute said as much, the small Irish crowd also showing their appreciation with a rousing applause.

Yesterday’s game was the most minutes Mannion had played since February 2022 as she continues on the comeback trail from her second cruciate ligament knee injury. Currently out of the United centre-half picture, she has featured for the U23s and in a senior friendly, though is yet to make her WSL return.

Her display was a massive step in the right direction.

“She performed really well and gave a calmness and a toughness in the back and she can only grow,” Pauw said afterwards, “But the key thing for her is that we need to keep her healthy and that means not getting injured and from there, gradually grow.

“This is only her third game back and not having finished a game yet, I took her off because she was getting fatigued and we wanted no risk of injuries as before.

“She could play more minutes than we expected because her heart-rates showed it and she had a really good rehab programme. On the bench, we had her live heart-rate monitor and we took her off in the moment my eyes saw that she was getting a bit fatigued.”

Quinn also hailed her “brilliant” new centre-half partner, as the defensive competition within the squad heats up. (Diane Caldwell was restricted to a substitute appearance yesterday, Megan Connolly switched from her midfield role to the back three, and there’s a lengthy list of other players who can also play there.)

“She has plenty of experience, played with top teams,” Quinn said of Mannion.

“She has that real variety as a defender to play good transitional balls but also be on the ball, very comfortable, getting herself out of two-v-one situations on the line. That shows her confidence in herself.

“It is sometimes exactly what we need, just that little moment of calm in the ball to break their lines and get past people. She was brilliant. A great communicator and a great leader.

“I didn’t have to encourage her too much to make sure she was talking because she just naturally has it. Really good information, really calm. She was just very assured and it was nice playing beside her.”

While De La Harpe’s audition ended abruptly after 45 minutes, Sheva brought an injection of pace and energy to the side for the second half. She settled in with a decent first touch, and looked to exploit China in the right-hand pocket.

The Washington Spirit attacking midfielder’s powerful running was a major boost, her high-level athletics background coming up trumps. 

At one point, she showed a clean pair of heels to get on the end of a diagonal, defence-splitting pass from Ruesha Littlejohn, and won a corner after being pressed. The former Penn State University star impressed on the ball too, spraying it right and left.

“I think they did really well and I think they have grown a lot in this camp,” Pauw said on the three new faces who have dominated the Ireland discussion throughout this international window and 10-day camp in Marbella.

It remains to be seen who’ll be there again in April.