Meet the players: Becky Flaherty
Following the Women’s Euro 2022 play-off success against Ukraine we are continuing to highlight the players who have helped the Northern Ireland senior women’s squad reach a major tournament for the first time in their history.
Scotland’s loss is definitely Northern Ireland’s gain when it comes to goalkeeper Becky Flaherty.
The 23-year-old stopper, who has just joined Blackburn Rovers Ladies from Sheffield United Women (both teams play in Women’s Super League 2 in England), represented Scotland in her youth, from under-15 up to U19 level.
But former Northern Ireland senior women’s team boss Alfie Wylie persuaded her to switch allegiance to the country of her maternal grandparents (grandad from Coleraine, granny from Ballymena) in early 2019 – and she has not regretted that decision.
Meet Becky Flaherty, a goalkeeper who loves to pull on the Northern Ireland shirt
Following the Women’s Euro 2022 play-off success against Ukraine we are continuing to highlight the players who have helped the Northern Ireland senior women’s squad reach a major tournament for the first time in their history.
Scotland’s loss is definitely Northern Ireland’s gain when it comes to goalkeeper Becky Flaherty.
The 23-year-old stopper, who has just joined Blackburn Rovers Ladies from Sheffield United Women (both teams play in Women’s Super League 2 in England), represented Scotland in her youth, from under-15 up to U19 level.
Aaron Hughes joins Wylie to put WU19s through their paces
Alfie Wylie’s Under-19 side started preparations for their own Women’s Euro qualifiers later this year with a training camp.
Former Northern Ireland captain Aaron Hughes, who is the Irish FA’s new Elite Football Development Consultant, joined Wylie and his backroom team, including Noel Mitchell and Lynn Carroll, at the five-day camp.
A new format has been introduced for WU19 and WU17 Euro qualifiers which replaces the old qualifying and elite rounds.
The competition still features one-venue mini-tournaments but now includes two leagues (A and B) with promotion and relegation leading to the 2022 finals.
UEFA Executive Committee cancels 2021 men’s and women’s U19 Euros
UEFA’s Executive Committee has cancelled the 2021 Men’s and Women’s U19 European Championship finals due to be staged this summer.
It’s a blow for both Northern Ireland WU19 boss Alfie Wylie and new Northern Ireland Men’s U19s boss Gerard Lyttle.
Lyttle had already started preparing for
three UEFA U19 Euro qualifiers in Sweden next month which were the first step on a path to the now axed finals in Romania.
And Wylie staged a training camp last week in preparation for a WU19 Euro qualifying round mini tournament in Armenia in April which was phase one of qualifying for the scrapped finals in Belarus.