AMBER BARRETT will always be Ireland’s Hampden hero — but she is striving to create more memories in green.
The Standard Liege striker will win her 50th cap tomorrow when the Girls in Green take on Greece in the Nations League in Heraklion on the island of Crete.
And at just 29, there should be many more caps to come.
But if her Ireland career stopped now, her place among the legends is assured after her goal against Scotland which booked Ireland’s place at the 2023 World Cup.
She knows and appreciates that — but Barrett wants more.
There is no Euros to look forward to this summer but everything is now building towards the next World Cup.
Barrett said: “That’s why I said after the Scotland game that I didn’t want this to be the only thing people spoke of.
“You might never qualify for a World Cup or Euros again.
“There is no guarantee in football. I want to give the best account of myself for as long as I can.
“When I started I had Diane Caldwell, Niamh Fahey, Julie-Ann Russell, Stephanie Roche and Áine O’Gorman with me.
“They were the players that I looked up to in my first camp.
“I’ve been with them on their journey and when they retire, that gap is empty.
“I can see that, as great as it is to be a part of, it is over in a heartbeat.
“You have to take as much out of it as well. It doesn’t have to be like, we have the Scotland win and that is great.
“I am proud of it and love hearing about it but I don’t want it to be the only thing.
“I have more to give. I heard Kyra Carusa has ten goals. I have seven. I want to get to double figures.
“I have all these ambitions. I just have to be in the mindset that the opportunities might not come every game.
“When they do, you have to make them count.”
Donegal native Barrett should bring up her half-century tomorrow, which has been a target for a while as she has waited for her opportunities.
New boss Carla Ward has spoken highly of her.
But a start last time out in the 4-0 defeat by Slovenia did not go according to plan.
And Barrett admitted that result — arguably one of Ireland’s worst — needs to be a turning point for the team.
She said: “I think when the third goal went in, there was a little bit of shell-shock.
“But in a way I always think that these things, as disheartening as they are, can be a good thing because you have to say you are getting too comfortable in a situation and raise standards.
“You have to move on from it. You can’t keep reflecting on Slovenia but we have to use that as the benchmark. We can’t let that happen again.
“I think losing to Slovenia 4-0, you can’t blame anything but we underperformed.
“You can look at different aspects that might have caused it.
“But I think that was just a game where too many of us didn’t have a good game and I think things just got the better of us.
“I think we have to look at ourselves now.
“What is now given to us and provided by the FAI and staff is miles ahead of what it was like at the very start when I came in.
“We can’t look outside the field at this wasn’t good enough or this wasn’t good enough.
“It ultimately has to come down to us.
“It’s very easy for people to point fingers at other people but you have to look at yourself first. That’s the only way we’re going to improve.
“We want to have this role in society that we’re getting better but then that puts us up for criticism.
“We have to be able to deal with that. We also have to be able to accept it and know ourselves that this wasn’t good enough.
“I think you can hear from the post-game interviews that everybody said the standards were way off.
“It’s good to be in that environment where you know what’s enough and you know what’s accepted.”
