REPUBLIC of Ireland defender Caitlin Hayes rued the lack of aggression in their first-half performance against England – but feels lessons have been learned as they look ahead to their third Euro 2025 qualifier against Sweden in Dublin at the end of May.
The overwhelming feeling following Tuesday night’s 2-0 home defeat to England was one of regret.
First-half goals from Lauren James and Alex Greenwood (pen) sealed the win for the visitors – but it was only in the last half hour the Irish decided to go on the front foot.
Captain Katie McCabe and Hayes had Ireland’s two best chances, both coming in the last seven minutes of normal time – but the English managed to keep them at bay.
While there were some tactical and personnel tweaks at half-time by manager Eileen Gleeson, Hayes felt it was as much to do with adopting a different mindset and having a go at their illustrious opponents.
McCabe described Ireland’s first half performance as “too passive” while Hayes lamented their slow start.
“We needed to start a bit quicker,” said the Celtic defender, who won her 10th international cap on Tuesday night.
“In the second half, we went toe-to-toe with one of the best teams in the world and that needs to be from whistle one.
“With that, there’s a little frustration but we can take the positives, knowing that we went toe-to-toe and that if we went from the jump, it could have been a different outcome.”
The Irish have now lost back-to-back qualifiers to France and England - ranked three and two in the FIFA rankings, respectively - and have yet to find the net, but with a play-off system in place, all is not lost in a bid to make their first-ever appearance at a Euro finals, staged in Switzerland next summer.
“It’s a great credit to how far this team has come, and no disrespect to the other teams in the other groups but we have definitely gone up a level,” said Hayes.
“We’re not drowning in the league, we’re holding our own and throwing our own punches, that’s a credit to how far this country has come in women’s football.
“We’re here to compete, we’re not just here to take part, we are here to show teams what we’re about and give it a go. We want to put the wrongs right at the next opportunity, against Sweden [Dublin on May 31].”
McCabe was desperately unlucky not score when she charged down England goalkeeper Hannah Hampton’s clearance while a few minutes earlier Hayes saw her back post header turned away.
“I probably should have done a little better,” Hayes said. “I’d have loved to put this team on the scoresheet.”
Asked what changed in the second half, the 28-year-old central defender said: “It was more of a [change in] mindset of just going up and being aggressive.
“I guess we could have done it from the start, but we made the changes, tactically, and learnt what we needed to do and did it better in the second half. That’s something we’ll hope to fix and do from the first half next time.
“That’s what we’ll focus on. There’s plenty more growing in this team.”
Even a bottom-placed finish in Group A3 isn’t the end of the Euro road for Gleeson’s crew. The top two teams will qualify for the finals and third and fourth will go into two-legged play-offs, almost like a second bite at the qualification cherry.
Despite the high-quality opposition Ireland are facing in this group, Hayes isn’t ruling out a top-two finish.
“We wouldn’t be lacing our boots if we didn’t believe it. There’d be no point training and doing all the hard work. I’ll never lose belief in this group of girls.”