IT WAS THE Mighty Quinns who stole the headlines as Ireland got back to winning ways after a five-goal shootout with high-flying Australia.

Both L Quinn, Louise and Lucy also play their club football together, at Women’s Super League outfit Birmingham City. For Ireland, long-serving Louise has Quinn on the back of her jersey, while English-born newcomer Lucy has the added L. “I’m the OG,” Louise grins.

The 31-year-old is one of the most experienced players in Vera Pauw’s squad. While first and foremost expertly leading the Irish defence against the Matildas, she also stepped up with the winner, ultimately ending a seven-game losing streak by delivering her 12th goal for her country on her 87th appearance.

“The auld trademark,” she laughed, after getting her forehead to a Katie McCabe corner in the 49th minute to make it 3-2. “It’s been a while. Obviously it just felt great. That just kind of topped it all off, to be honest.”

A post-match chat with Quinn is always fascinating. Rather than the usual soundbites and clichés, the Birmingham captain always offers her honest, in-depth analysis. 

The Player of the Match was delighted with how solid Ireland were overall, and was pleased with her own individual second-half response. “I didn’t feel like I had a sharp a first half but I had a bit of a word with myself at half time and it just came together.”

Quinn had high praise for her namesake Lucy, who is her housemate along with Harriet Scott at an Irish-heavy Blues, and for the “phenomenal” Heather Payne, while also hailing the Matildas.

“They’re an absolutely phenomenal squad. It was really helpful to play a team like that because they’re brilliant at their long ball play, it’s so controlled and I think we can learn a lot from how they like to play it, how fast they are in transition and their speed, determination and sharpness. I think we’ve got to learn from what the Aussies did.”

From the outside looking in, it was a monkey off Ireland’s back as they snapped a dismal losing run just in time for their 2023 World Cup qualifying campaign, where they find themselves in Group A alongside heavyweights Sweden and Finland, as well as Slovakia and Georgia.

Having tested themselves against the best in recent months, playing a string of top-20 ranked nations after the curtain came down on their Euro 2022 qualifying disappointment, Pauw and her players always stressed the performance = result strategy.

“We’re always going out every game, primarily looking for the performance,” Quinn nods. “We always want to win. We haven’t looked at it too much that way in terms of the losses. Yes, it’s not enjoyable or not this, that and the other, but you’re looking at the quality of teams we’ve been playing.

“I don’t think we felt that pressure of a run of losses because we’re looking at the opponents we’re facing and more at the performances. Some have been tight, some have not been.

“To get this far, and perform how we did against a top-quality team, that is the most important thing. It’s been about the performances. Obviously we always want to win, it’s been disappointing when we’ve had certain results and certain losses in the past. But we’re building towards something and hopefully the timing of the peak is just about right.”

Quinn celebrating scoring her side's third goal. James Crombie / INPHO James Crombie / INPHO / INPHO

Experimenting with – and without – players, positions and shapes has been key, while also working on consistency. Quinn, like all involved, appreciates that outsiders just see results and score lines in black in white, but hasn’t paid much attention to that.

“We understand what we’re doing in here. But yeah, we’re going into this campaign and people will be hopefully just looking that we beat Australia 3-2 on our home turf and our performance and our fight, we were able to sit in and do the business.”

That’s the plan going forward, Ireland yet to reach a first-ever major tournament. After falling agonisingly short in the last campaign, the Girls In Green were left to rue a late 1-1 draw against Greece and perhaps, more devastatingly, a 1-0 loss to Ukraine.

Ukraine went through to the play-offs, but their journey ended at the hands of Northern Ireland, who made history in qualifying for Euro 2022.

Is the Republic now ready to step up and make play-offs, at least? (The group winners qualify directly for the World Cup, while runners-up navigate the playoffs.)

“We have to be ready,” Quinn deadpans. “We have to do it, to push and go out of our comfort zone to feel that pressure. And we’ve to put out performances like that, where everybody was working for each other. That has to be consistent. Consistency of performances is something we’ve to work on.

“This is it. You don’t get many chances to do this, as we learnt during the Euro campaign.”

And securing results, whether that be wins or draws, from both opening qualifiers next month against top-two Sweden and Finland is paramount.

“Exactly. At this moment, it’s about making sure we at least that second spot. That’s where we’re going. And when we’re playing the likes of Sweden, we’ve to try to steal something.

“Playing like we did against Australia always gives us hope. We’re going in having played top teams and performed well against them.

“When it hasn’t gone well against them, it’s been our own mistakes that have cost us.

“It’s a tough start but we’ve got to take that pressure on our shoulders and get onto it.”