Atkinson ready to make impression for club and country

Izzy Atkinson is hoping to make her case to Vera Pauw using both club and country in the coming months, starting this afternoon against Morocco.

The West Ham full-back has found game time limited and knows she must see action on the pitch in order to secure her seat on the plane to the World Cup in Australia next summer.

The current squad were told on Wednesday that only 23 players will be permitted to go to the competition – a blow to the likes of Atkinson as Ireland usually have a more extended panel for qualifiers and friendlies.

Three training players will also be included as back-ups but it means every player will need to make an impression in club football just to be considered.

Atkinson said: "Knowing that we can't bring 28 players (shows how difficult it will be to get in the squad). We found out that it's 23 players than can go and three training players when we've always had a squad of 28.

"At that, the squad will be smaller. With Shamrock Rovers coming into the WNL, and everything getting better in Ireland and England, the competition is getting more intense

"The past few weeks obviously I've been wanting to get more minutes with West Ham. I've been putting pressure on myself because I need to be playing as much as I can to get on the plane. I'm just going to keep pushing and hopefully get as many minutes as I can.

"Vera said that a lot of the girls like myself who haven't gotten a lot of minutes for the seniors will be the ones that play on Friday in a closed doors game. Players like myself will hopefully get a lot of minutes and hopefully I can do well and try and make an impact."

While Atkinson has been useful for the Hammers in coming off the bench, she feels that her performances merit more game time under