Carla Ward lays ‘dark arts’ accusation at Netherlands as she laments ‘sickening’ defeat
Carla Ward accused the Netherlands of using the “dark arts” to see out Saturday night’s World Cup qualification win over Ireland.The Dutch were happy to eat up the clock as the game drifted into injury-time and take the three points courtesy of Lineth Beerensteyn’s double, either side of a Katie McCabe penalty.And Ward said: “You saw all the dark arts from them. Anyone would think it was the other way around.“That second-half performance, the girls can take a lot of credit, because they were absolutely brilliant.”The Girls in Green boss admitted the defeat was tough to take, just four days after they fell to 2-1 reversal to France.“It’s sickening, really, isn’t it? Because over the course of the last four or five days we have played two of the best in the world and we have come away disappointed in both not to take something,” she said.“It’s just disappointing because the players have been excellent.“We pride ourselves on defending set-pieces and it’s just two moments over the course of two games that have hurt us. It’s a difficult one to take, I’m not going to lie.”Ward added: “Let’s be honest, we played this week against two of the best nations in the world, and little old Ireland competed.”Next up is an April double-header against Poland, who picked up a point in a 2-2 draw with the Netherlands last Tuesday before Saturday night’s 4-1 defeat away to France.Ireland striker Emily Murphy is eager to build on the performances in this window when the two sides meet, first in Gdansk and then at the Aviva Stadium.“It’s frustrating,” said Murphy. “We had a turnaround of four days and we put two of the best countries to the test.“Katie said it well at the end; we had a team like the Netherlands timewasting in a game against us, which we’ve got to take pride from, but obviously we wanted to come away with the three points.“I think we should take massive pride out of these two performances and push to go again in the next window.”Want to see more of the stories you love from the Irish Mirror? Making us your preferred source on Google means you’ll get more of our exclusives, top stories and must-read content straight away. To add Irish Mirror as a preferred source, simply click here.Click here to sign up to our sport newsletter, bringing you the top stories and biggest headlines from Ireland and beyond.
