Longford soccer star Michaela Hand starts for the Republic of Ireland Women’s U-16s

Talented Michaela, who began her career with Stonepark FC and now plays with Athlone Town, captained the Longford Schoolboys League U-14 Kennedy Cup team in Limerick in June of this year and also plays ladies football with Grattans.

Ireland U-16s secured another win with a 8-1 scoreline in Whitehall Stadium, Dublin this Thursday so that meant Megan Smyth-Lynch's new squad scored 13 goals in two games despite not having played with each other before.

Ireland started off quickly, getting comfortable in possession and passing the ball around nicely. On seven minutes, the hosts nearly had their first goal. A great chance for captain Ava Mullins saw her drive into the penalty area with some nice skill, but her shot hit the side netting.

Eight minutes in, Wexford Youths’ Leah McGrath made it 1-0. She latched onto a pass in the box and put it away nicely.

On 13 minutes, Pike Rovers’ Madison McGuane doubled Ireland’s advantage with another nice finish from inside the box. Then on 16 minutes, McGuane got her second after a lovely square ball from her team-mate Ella Kelly.

It was 4-0 to the home team on 28 minutes when Finlay Newell netted after showing impressive skill in the box to get around the opposition goalkeeper and score from a tight angle.

Faroe Islands had a chance from a free-kick on 30 minutes, but the shot was comfortably saved by Jenna Willoughby in the Ireland goal. Straight after that DLR Waves’ Anna Butler makes it 5-0.

Just before half-time, Butler got her second after a brilliantly corner delivery from Mullins. That brought the scoreboard up to 6-0 for the first half.

Aisling Meehan started the second half off with a brilliant strike to make it 7-0. Then Faroe Islands pulled one back on 55 minutes after a looping free-kick was knocked into the back of the net by Silja Ragnarsdóttir Trier

Mary Hartofilis made it 8-1 to Ireland with a clean strike into the bottom right hand corner to finish the game on a high and give Smyth-Lynch plenty of positives to take forward with this talented group of players.

Ireland: Jenna Willoughby; Aiblinn Cotter (Kate Jones 41), Abigail Bradshaw (Kya McKenna 41), Michaela Hand (Kaitlyn Delahunty 62), Ava Mullins; Sarah McCaffrey (Beatrice Silickaite 52), Finley Newell (Heather Loomes 41), Madison McGuane (Lauren Bowe 52); Ella Kelly (Katie Ray 41), Anna Butler (Aisling Meehan 41), Leah McGrath (Mary Hartofilis 52).