DENISE O’SULLIVAN HAS welcomed Ireland’s return to winning ways under new management as they look to bounce back from Euro 2025 heartbreak.
But the Cork midfield maestro has again voiced her “100% support” for former assistant coach Colin Healy and continued to criticise the FAI for their handling of the situation.
Ireland began life under Carla Ward with a scrappy 1-0 win over Türkiye in their Nations League opener on Friday night.
Kyra Carusa scored what proved to be the winner just before half time at Tallaght Stadium, but the Girls In Green were lucky to escape with all three points.
“It’s very exciting. We were obviously all devastated with the Wales loss, but Carla and the staff coming in, it’s been enjoyable,” said Player of the Match O’Sullivan afterwards.
“We’ve only had a few days working with them, but to get the win tonight was very important. It was a tough game. It was scrappy, but the most important thing is that we got the three points.
“It’s the first game under a new manager. We have a long way to go and a lot to work on as a team, but we’ll take a look at the video in the next few days and see what we can improve on.”
Denise O'Sullivan is a deserved player of the match for her display in the Republic of Ireland's 1-0 win over Turkey in the Nations League. pic.twitter.com/vPX6i3gZeJ
— RTÉ Sport (@RTEsport) February 21, 2025
O’Sullivan has been vociferous in the wake of Healy’s acrimonious exit, both on social media and in an interview with Irish Football Fan TV, in which she said the FAI “lacked class and compassion” in their treatment of the departed coach.
The North Carolina Courage captain continued to stress those feelings post-match, and called for change in the future.
“I 100% support Colin Healy,” O’Sullivan told Balls.ie.
“I voiced my opinion a few weeks ago, I felt strongly about the situation and I stand by what I said. He was honestly an amazing man, done a lot for us — and Eileen [Gleeson, former head coach] as well, she done so much for us.
“It wasn’t good enough, and things need to change going forward.”
Meanwhile, Ward was pleased to get her first win as Ireland boss after a frustrating night in Dublin 24.
The new head coach hailed O’Sullivan as “a world-class talent” and Friday’s “standout by a country mile” after a typically-excellent display on her 120th cap, and stressed she has been “an absolute joy to work with”.
Assessing the game overall, Ward said: “It was scrappy. It wasn’t pretty, but I think if we put it down, it was a clean sheet, three points and something to build on.
“The girls have played a new system for the first time with new ideas, so credit to them because it was difficult conditions out there.
“We knew Türkiye would make it difficult and try to make it into a scrap which is sometimes difficult to play against but we’ll go with the three points clean sheet and a lot to work on and a lot to build on.”
While accepting is “part and parcel of the game,” Ward said the cut-up Tallaght pitch “wasn’t ideal” after Shamrock Rovers’ Europa Conference League defeat to Molde on Thursday night, and revealed it forced a tactical rethink.
“Just before kick-off we had to change the build-up in a way because there’s no way we could have built in the way we wanted to on the pitch.”
She also agreed there may have been a “hangover” from December’s play-off loss to Wales, but was keen to look forward to Tuesday’s trip to Slovenia. They came from behind to beat Greece 2-1 on Friday afternoon, and will provide another tricky test.
Ward urged calmness when asked for one single area Ireland can improve on in Koper.
“Calm and belief,” she said. “They’re really good footballers, a really good group of people and I think sometimes we can just relax and believe a little bit more and that’s my job to get that into them.
“A player said it to me there at the end that it’s always been our problem that we always go into chaos mode, and that’s okay. It’s up to me and the staff now just to get them to relax a bit and believe that they are top footballers because they are.”
Megan Campbell will be assessed in the coming days after being substituted with “a niggle” late on, along with Leanne Kiernan, who was ruled out of the opener with a calf injury.
Denise is a born leader and has a great moral compass. Great to see her fully backing Colin so publicly.
Not too aware of exactly Colin was mistreated but it’s not going away, hard to believe that the FAI haven’t got their house in order after the tragedy that was the Delaney years, they seem to be a complete joke of an organisation and not worthy of the support they receive.