QUILTY girl Chloe Moloney will be a vital member of the Republic of Ireland’s U-19 soccer squad, as they seek to qualify for the European Championships next week.
Managed by Dave Connell, all three games will be played at the Markets Field in Limerick in the elite qualifying round.
Next Tuesday, Ireland will play Scotland at 7pm, followed by their second group game, against Ukraine, on Thursday, April 6, at the same time. On Sunday, April 9, at 2pm, Ireland will meet Finland in their final group game.
This is Chloe’s final year playing at U-19 level and the Peamount United centre-half is hoping that Ireland can top the group.
“One team comes out of the group to go to the European finals in Belfast in August. We had two recent friendlies against the Czech Republic in Barcelona. We won the first 3-0 and we lost the second 3-2. We were missing a few because three of our girls were gone with the seniors. We were in Barcelona for the week. It was good preparation for the matches coming up and it was good to get the two games in,” Moloney, who is vice-captain, told The Clare Champion.
Given that she is the only Clare or Limerick woman featuring in the squad, she is hoping that people from the Kilmurry-Ibrickane parish will travel to support Ireland.
“Hopefully, we’ll get a bit of support in Limerick because it’s so close to home. There aren’t many of these games played in the region. We’re going to need the support to, hopefully, get us over the line,” she said.
Moloney has signed to play for Peamount United in the women’s national league. The season kicked off two weeks ago.
“It’s going well so far. We play in the women’s national league, which is the highest league in Ireland. We train Tuesdays and Thursdays and we train as part of the FAI course as well in Clondalkin,” she explained, adding that the course is beneficial in terms of improving fitness and working on strength and conditioning.
“It improves you a lot. We train with boys as well and do gym instructing as part of the course,” Quilty’s Irish international said.
By Peter O’Connell
A native of Ennis, Colin McGann has been editor of The Clare Champion since August 2020. Former editor of The Clare People, he is a journalism and communications graduate of Dublin Institute of Technology.