Louise Quinn: We're not going to use any excuses

Louise Quinn has insisted the Republic of Ireland will not be using any excuses when they reflect on their maiden appearance at FIFA Women's World Cup.

Housed in a very tough Group B, Ireland's have had injury scares to Denise O'Sullivan and Quinn herself in the last two weeks, with Heather Payne forced to pull out of the Canada game after her hamstring tightened up in the warm-up.

They've also had a highly demanding travel schedule. Based in Brisbane, the Girls in Green flew to Sydney for the Australia match, came back to Brisbane, flew over 4,000km to Perth to take on the Canadians and are now back in Brisbane ahead of their final game against Nigeria on Monday.

Tough going, but Quinn is refusing to dwell on such challenges.

"I don't think we've used any sort of excuses," said the 33-year-old centre-half.

"Denise definitely got a knock, I’ve definitely had a knock, thankfully it’s one of those things that hasn’t been able to keep us out. We’re not going to use any excuses.

"The experience of a tournament or the crowds, I actually thought we handled it amazingly against Australia. I thought we were very cool and composed, just had the right amount of nerves and really just soaked it in.

"For a penalty to determine the Australia game is rough. But we still created chances, we managed to get forward, it’s just about finishing those chances. If you’re only given two, three chances in a game you’ve got to take one to two of them at least."

"We've got to work our ass off to get something out of it."

Quinn damaged ligaments in her foot towards the end of the 1-0 loss to the Matildas. However she played through the pain barrier to face Canada and is ready to do so again against Nigeria, who are aiming to reach the last 16 after their