Paul Fennessy

AMBER BARRETT may not always be one of the first names on the teamsheet, but her importance to this Ireland squad cannot be underestimated.

With first-choice striker Kyra Carusa absent due to a quad injury, Barrett led the line last night and took advantage of a dubious penalty decision to convert the spot-kick confidently amid a 2-1 win over Greece.

The Standard Liège striker was clinical when she needed to be, despite some pre-spot kick mind games.

“[One of the Greece players] was pointing to the right, which is the side I went,” Barrett says. “Hard and low, that’s what my daddy always says, hit it hard and low. One of the Greek strikers [Ioanna Papatheodorou] plays in Belgium, and I scored a penalty against them [Leuven] a few weeks ago, so there was a wee bit of messing from that.”

Initially, it looked as if teammate Lucy Quinn might take the penalty, but Barrett says there was no debate.

“No, no, the word from yesterday at training was I was going to be on penalties, but there is all this new psychology about minding the penalty spot, so I think there was a wee bit of that.

“The game at the start was quite good, but there is the element when things are hectic like that, everybody is running around, and you can’t really take your second wind. I managed to take a few wee breaths, put the ball down and backed myself to score. I was scoring off Courtney [Brosnan] yesterday in penalties, and I believe if you can score on Courtney, you can score on any ‘keeper.” 

In addition to penalties, the 29-year-old has been working hard behind the scenes on other areas of her game.

“I’m probably not used to trying to hold up the ball as much as I have been over the last few months,” she says.

“Again, that was something that I wasn’t good at and had to improve on, and I’ve put the time and effort in.

“There are still elements that I need to be better at, but it was probably a wee bit frustrating at times. I felt we could have got more balls and crosses into the box — that’s just little things, but it’s something to work on.”

Barrett’s two goals in this international window leave her overall tally at nine goals in 51 appearances at international level. Only three players in the current Irish squad — Katie McCabe, Denise O’Sullivan and Carusa — have scored more.

Barrett and Carusa are similar types of forwards, meaning it has often been a case of either/or with various Ireland managers.

Ward accommodated both players in the starting XI against Slovenia last February. But the performance amid a 4-0 loss was one of Ireland’s worst in recent memory, suggesting this experiment may not be repeated anytime soon.

Yet the Donegal native says the pair are friendly despite seemingly competing for the same spot.

“We are [battling], but I can assure you there is no one more happy to see me scoring than she is. And there is nobody as happy to see her score as I am. And I think that’s a healthy relationship that we have — the competitiveness we have, it’s really healthy, but it also pushes us on.”

Barrett will hope she can maintain her encouraging form for the upcoming final two Nations League matches away to Turkey and home versus Slovenia in late May and early June.

But before then, she has a cup final with Standard Liege to look forward to — they face Anderlecht on 21 April.

“I do, and tickets are only €15 and flights are very cheap, so you are more than welcome to come over. There’s a crew coming over from Donegal. A few Donegal ones coming over, alright.”

And closer to home, Barrett has been watching the Donegal footballers’ exploits with interest, particularly as her brother Luke is part of Jim McGuinness’ coaching team.

“He just says: ‘Ah, we are going alright. We are going okay.’ What does he think I am going to do? Tell the whole county what is going on. They are flat out, but my brother loves it, absolutely loves it, and they are flying, but it is hard work trying to get anything out of him.”