QUINN: ‘WE KNOW THERE’S PLENTY TO PLAY FOR’
to secure a new contract. ‘We had a huge emotional explosion on Thursday and the biggest thing is to get back on the ground and load your emotions up for another fight,’ Pauw said. ‘No game is won without a fight. That is the biggest task. And we are missing a few players, so we need to find solutions for that.
‘We don’t underestimate Slovakia. They are a very, very good footballing team. They had a good positional sense in Tallaght and they have the skills to execute that in a small place.
‘They have a lot of street footballers, very mobile and who know exactly what they do on the pitch. It is a very dangerous squad, they drew against Finland and us, only narrow losses to Sweden, so we’re fully prepared.’
Veteran defender Louise Quinn dismissed the idea that Ireland will relax now that the job of getting to the play-offs is done.
‘For us, there is plenty to play for,’ said the towering centrehalf. ‘In this team, there is plenty to play for in terms of making sure you are in the next starting XI for that play-off, wherever that may be. So you want Vera and the coaching staff to see us in the best possible light. We are constantly competing, we constantly want to send messages to other teams about the strength and depth of our team.
‘We are thrilled to get to a playoff but now we have another chance to make that even better, to make it an even better play-off spot and get an extra bonus for the hard work we have done.
‘There is never any complacency in these games. There is so much to play for as a team.’
Pauw again expressed disappointment that there were 800 empty seats in Tallaght for the Finland game, despite it being sold out in less than an hour. She took issue that people chose to stay away, despite the scramble for tickets.
‘My feeling is that it comes back to the decency of the people who buy the tickets and that they know there are thousands of girls crying at home, literally crying, because they couldn’t go to the stadium.
‘You need to take responsibility when you buy a ticket.’