Jessie Stapleton on life with the Black Cats and Irish ambitions

An energised Jessie Stapleton is hoping for a golden opportunity to impress in a green shirt this week after making another fresh start in her young career.

The versatile West Ham player spent last season on loan at troubled Reading, who withdrew from the Championship at the end of the campaign due to financial issues. The Royals ultimately dropped to the fith tier of the English football pyramid.

Stapleton, meanwhile, dusted herself down and made another loan move, this time to Sunderland. Still only 19, the Dubliner is feeling the benefits of getting regular minutes in a healthy environment, and came into Ireland camp this week buoyed by a north-east derby win over Durham on Sunday.

"I'm absolutely loving it," she said ahead of Friday's Euro 2025 play-off semi-final first leg against Georgia.

"The coaching, the lifestyle, the culture, the environment, I’m really enjoying it.

"The set-up is unbelievable. As I already said, the coaches are class, top of the range. I feel like I’m just improving and getting game time, which is the main thing."

Stapleton has been named as a defender in Eileen Gleeson's latest squad but is also capable of operating in the middle of the park. She started in the engine room against Sweden at the Aviva Stadium last May; a huge test that proffered harsh lessons and precious top-level experience.

"Before the campaign even started, we knew it was going to be a tough set of games because of the quality of the opposition," said Stapleton when reflecting on the qualifiers.

"We came out the better side of it. We learned a lot from playing the big teams and we fixed the little improvements we needed to. I think we’re in a really good position going into the next couple of games.

"Eileen is a great manager,