IRELAND manager Carla Ward insisted that only a win will do as the Girls in Green face Greece in Crete this afternoon.
Ward’s side are reeling from a 4-0 loss to Slovenia last month and are keen to avoid adding a Greek tragedy, which would likely scupper their Nations League promotion chances.
And the Ireland gaffer admitted that anything other than win against Greek outfit who lost both of their opening games of this campaign is out of the question.
Ward said: ““We are a collective, we’re quite a tightknit group already. Self-reflection is key.
“I always say it’s like being in a boxing ring, the sooner you get hit, the sooner you get up, you have a look at why you’ve been hit and you deep dive into that.
“There was a lot of that for sure. I’ve been really clear to the group, we have to get three points.
“That’s the bottom line. I don’t think anything but three points is good enough, that’s being honest.
“They’ve reacted so well this week, they really have. They’ve been unbelievable these last few days. They’ve been really good.
“We’ve tweaked a couple of things from Slovenia in terms of how we look after defensive transitions because that was something that hurt us.
“So the tweaks should allow us to be better.”
Having beaten Turkey 1-0 in Ward’s first game without impressing and then following it with the disaster in Slovenia, Ward is considering making changes.
Everton’s Heather Payne is definitely out but could be available for Tuesday’s return fixture in Tallaght.
And Megan Campbell could return having withdrawn from the Slovenia game just before kick-through injury.
Celtic’s Saoirse Noonan is also in the frame to be involved after being called up for the first time in almost two years after bagging 26 goals to date this season.
Ward added: “Saoirse’s great. She’s in and around the box, she’s something we probably lacked against Slovenia, just that fox in the box as we call it.
“She knows where the back of the net is, she knows how to find spaces in that areas. She’s been excellent.”
And striker Amber Barrett, who will win her 50th cap, believes that the lessons from Koper against Slovenia will stand to Ireland now.
She said: “In a way I always think that these things, as disheartening as they are, can be a good thing because you either have to say you are getting too comfortable in a situation and raise standards.
“It was one of those games where everything that could go wrong probably did go wrong.
“I think if you look back at the goals, just moments, basics, like five-yard passes weren’t coming off, letting players run off your shoulder, you can do a lot of tactical stuff but at the end of the day, you still have to defend the goal, that’s the end game.
“You can’t keep reflecting on Slovenia but we do have to use that as the benchmark, we can’t let that happen again.”
