DEAN GOODISON

SIX MONTHS can go past in the blink of an eye. One minute it’s November and Christmas is coming up; suddenly it’s spring, the grass needs cutting again, the evenings get a little brighter, and football is, usually, back in Ferrycarrig Park.

For most of us those six months just go by, and one day meanders into another. We go about our daily lives, do our jobs, keep ourselves busy.

Rianna Jarrett’s last six months have been a little different than most.

In that time the Wexford woman has won the National Cup final with her team-mates, signed a professional contract with Brighton and Hove Albion in the Women’s Super League, scored on her debut and turned herself into a regular starter for the Irish national team.

Most were confident that the FAI Women’s National Cup final was going to be Jarrett’s last game for Youths, for now anyway, but she wasn’t looking at it that way herself.

‘There’s no better experience than winning a cup final,’ she explained. ‘The beauty of the cup is that anyone can win it. To win it two years in a row, with your family, in your national stadium, live on TV, is something I can’t describe.

‘The FAI Cup final is the date that everyone has their eyes on at the start of the season. Of course the league is the main focus, but everyone wants to play in the Aviva at the end of the season.

‘We actually call it ‘The Aviva Cup’, but obviously at that time I had no idea that it would be my last game in a Wexford Youths jersey, for the time being anyway.’

A cracking performance for her country against Montenegro left the eyes of European football looking Jarrett’s way, however, a knee injury sustained in the Cup final saw her miss the Greece game.

She explained that Brighton’s interest didn’t wane all the same.

‘So I’d been thinking for a while that I wanted to see if I could get an opportunity to play at a higher