Northern Ireland manager Kenny Shiels admits the team’s swift progress has “created a monster” and it will take another decade for the nation to reach the upper echelons of women’s football.
The country’s debut at a major tournament saw them outclassed by Norway in a 4-1 defeat at St Mary’s Stadium. After conceding twice in the opening 10 minutes Northern Ireland were 3-0 down at half-time, although defender Julie Nelson – Northern Ireland’s most-capped female player – gave the competition’s lowest-ranked nation something to cheer shortly after the break. “The scoreline was hard to take, I thought we deserved better than that but we are three years into this programme and it will take 10 years to take us into the top 20 in Europe,” Shiels told the BBC. “We have created a monster because we have grown too quickly and are playing against teams of this ilk.
It is tough. “If we can continue to progress then we can do it a bit quicker. We have to get real and understand this is an emerging game in Northern Ireland.” A difficult evening for Northern Ireland was compounded by an injury to forward Simone Magill – who only completed a move from Everton to Aston Villa on Wednesday.
The 27-year-old was helped off the field in tears in the 79th minute and Shiels is not optimistic about her prognosis. “We are worried about that more than anything,” he said. “It’s her knee.