Eileen Gleeson's first game as permanent manager of the Ireland WNT may have snapped her winning streak after six straight wins in the Women's National League, but she pronounced herself very pleased with the 0-0 draw against Italy, a team ranked ten places higher than Ireland.
"That was a very positive performance. I'm really proud of the girls," said Gleeson of the fixture in Florence.
"We went toe to toe with them a couple times, we dealt with their possession well. They had a couple chances, we had a couple chances."
Of Leanne Kiernan's subsequently disallowed goal, Gleeson remarked, "It was very tight. But the encouraging thing was that we made the chance with a great move and it was finished off."
"We changed things this week. We played a different system with a back four. We changed a few of the movements. We put Jessie Stapleton in at six and we're promoting adaptability, and I think the girls did that tonight against a very good Italian side and I thought we held our own."
The match saw significant players return, including Jess Ziu after a long ACL recovery and Amber Barrett after a time out of the squad, at the same time as other players were absent — Jamie Finn with her own ACL injury and Denise O'Sullivan and Tyler Toland with more minor knee injuries.
"We had a lot coming back in from Jess Ziu to Niamh Fahey, player of the match, Aoife Mannion late on, Leanne Kiernan. So there is a lot to look forward to."
The focus now is on Ireland's Tuesday meeting with Cymru in Tallaght stadium (Live on RTE2 starting at 7:30 p.m.), the remaining chance for Ireland to prepare for a successful League A campaign.
"This is what we said," said Gleeson. "We have two good games in this preparation window going into League A. We wanted to be in that league, we're in there now, and we have to play like we belong in League A and I think the girls showed that. We knew we could do that tonight."
