Carla Ward frustrated but gets off to winning start as Ireland boss with Turkey victory

Carla Ward couldn’t hide her frustration on the touchline as Ireland made a meal of their Nations League win against Turkey on Friday night.

Kyra Carusa’s goal decided the tie, but the performance was a few notches below what the new Girls in Green gaffer would have expected on her first 90 minutes in the job.

The pitch and the blustery conditions didn’t help. But too many passes went astray - and each misplaced ball seemed to land like a blow on the former Aston Villa boss.

If she wasn’t throwing her hands to her face, she was crouching, waving her arms or throwing her head back towards the dugout.

There were moments too that she applauded, but they were few and far between, while there were regular conflabs with her assistant Alan Mahon.

Fortunately, Carusa’s header deep into first-half stoppage time was enough to earn Ireland all three points against a team 35 places below them in the FIFA world rankings.

Bar a second-half corner that Megan Campbell headed clear - even if it looked like it was creeping wide rather than inside the post - the visitors posed no threat whatsoever to Courtney Brosnan’s goal.

Ireland can’t always rely on facing such a blunt attack, though, so even in the face of such levelling conditions as on Friday night they know they must do better.

There were eyebrows raised long before kick-off when UEFA’s tactical teamsheet listed Katie McCabe as a striker alongside Kyra Carusa, with a back-three and five across the middle.

Whether the formation was a copy and paste job from the previous two regimes, or an attempt by new boss Ward to bluff her Turkish counterpart, it seemed unlikely that the Arsenal player would spearhead the attack.

And so it came to pass. McCabe started on the left, but of a back-four instead of a back three or five (delete according to your point of view).

And while Turkey started brightly, winning two early corners, their lack of attacking guile gave McCabe licence to attack.

Ireland struggled to piece together many forward moves of consequence, while on too many occasions the ball out to Katie McCabe lacked accuracy.

Between the wind and a surface that was already far from ideal when Shamrock Rovers faced Molde 24 hours earlier, precision passing was a real struggle.

Even the brilliant Denise O’Sullivan found it difficult to control the ball, as evidenced in the 39th minute when an inventive set-piece came to nothing.

With everyone anticipating a Ruesha Littlejohn shot, she rolled a free-kick to O’Sullivan on the edge of the area.

Her first-time pass was intended to set Lucy Quinn through on goal, but she overhit the ball and it rolled out of play for a goal-kick.

That training ground routine came around 16 minutes after O’Sullivan had the best Irish chance of the first-half.

From a Megan Campbell long throw, Carusa’s flick header was parried by goalkeeper Selda Akgoz and the ball spilled to the Cork midfielder.

Her shot beat Akgoz, but was hacked off the line by Busem Seker.

That effort, and a couple of long-range Littlejohn shots, including one that cleared the bar by a fraction, was as much as Ireland could muster in terms of efforts on goal.

Until, that is, stoppage time in the first-half, when Carusa gave Ireland a huge shot in the arm heading into the break.

Marissa Sheva was challenged as she attempted to break into the area, but the ball rebounded to Aoife Mannion.

She slipped the ball into Sheva, who had continued her run, the unattached midfielder knocked it back to Payne and the 50-cap speedster’s cross was met by a looping Carusa header.

Akgoz could only watch on as the ball sailed over her head and dropped in under the crossbar.

Had Carusa not taken her international tally into double figures with her first-half injury-time goal, it could have been a disastrous start under Ward, as Ireland created nothing of note in the second-half.

Outside of that Campbell headed clearance, and a stoppage-time scramble in the Irish area, neither goal came under attack.

Next up is a trip to Slovenia next Tuesday night, and a better performance will be needed there against a team that opened their campaign with a win away to Greece yesterday.

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