Meath girl on irish team in turkey

Goalkeeper Naoisha McAloon from Ratoath is in the Republic of Ireland Women's Under 17s squad this week in Turkey where they started with a 3-0 victory over Ukraine on Thursday as they bid for qualification for the Elite Round of the UEFA European Championships.

She played in the victory over Ukraine, but didn't feature in the 7-0 win against Andorra on Saturday morning.

'It was always my intention to give as many girls a chance to play in the games and we managed to do that against Andorra, but we won't relax and think that everything is okay now because we have a big game against Turkey on Tuesday,' commented coach Dave Bell.

'We came here to top the group and that is what we want to do. We've had two very good wins and performances, but Turkey will be a really difficult game and we have to prepare for that,' he added.

The final qualifying game against Turkey in Kusadasi on Tuesday  (13:30 Irish time) will be a tight affair because top spot in Group 1 is still up for grabs as both Turkey and Ukraine sit on three points behind Ireland.

Bell won't be taking anything for granted despite his team's excellent start to qualifying. He will simply be asking for a similar effort on top of fine-tuning certain aspects of their game-plan.

The coach was full of praise for how his players have performed in difficult conditions and the win over Andorra means they can be confident going into their final game against Turkey.