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It was Ward’s first defeat at the helm in her second game, her reign opening with a scrappy 1-0 win over Türkiye last Friday. The English coach took full ownership after her opening-half set-up backfired in Koper. “Well, I won’t use the word I probably want to use, but I think the first half was horrible,” Ward told RTÉ afterwards. Advertisement “Look, that’s on me. I’ve tried something different, I’ve tried to get us in positions to create more. It’s not paid off so at half time, we’ve had to readjust and I thought second half, we were much, much better, but you can’t have a half of football like that and expect to win the game. “It’s a horrible night but what I would say is it’s a huge learning curve at the minute, I’m asking them to do different things. It’s my job to get that right and I think it’s important that I take the pressure away from the players. Yes, they go out there, but I’m giving them the message.” Ireland manager Carla Ward. "The first half was horrible. That's on me. I've tried something different, tried to get us in positions to create more, and it's not paid off."#UWNL pic.twitter.com/CpGg8rKjFP— RTÉ Sport (@RTEsport) February 25, 2025 Ward rejected the notion that it was a system failure — she is deploying a new, fluid 4-3-3 as part of a possession-based, attacking plan — and will not reconsider her style or question her philosophy. “It’s not the system, it was maybe a couple of players in different positions and trying something a little bit different. We won’t just rip it up, we have to own it, we have to take responsibility and make sure that that half of football never happens again because it’s completely unacceptable. “The tough times make you stronger and look at things in a different way. We’re chasing the group now, we’ve got to beat Slovenia at home, win all our games and hope that Türkiye can do us a favour against Slovenia.” McCabe, meanwhile, echoed her manager’s words on a chastening night at Bonifika Stadion where Lara Prašnikar (two), Zara Kramžar and Nina Kajzb bagged the goals. “It’s completely unacceptable by our standards,” said McCabe. “We can’t start games like that. We always know it’s going to be difficult coming to these types of places, playing away from home, but we need to have a look at ourselves. We obviously will go back to the drawing board and look to see where we can improve. “The goals were completely avoidable, I think we gifted them their chances. We need to be better. We’re trying a new system, we’re going to make mistakes, we need to be brave on the ball. We just weren’t clean enough in our turnovers as well, we gave them too much space. We’re going to be chasing them in the group now. We’ll have to reflect and look to do better going into the double-header against Greece [in April].” Katie McCabe: "It's completely unacceptable by our standards.The goals were completely avoidable. We're trying a new system... we gave them too much space."#UWNL pic.twitter.com/jkGhIR2S44— RTÉ Sport (@RTEsport) February 25, 2025 Ward experimented with McCabe deployed further forward in the first half, but the skipper was reverted to left-back at half time. “We wanted to go and attack the game, hindsight’s a wonderful thing, isn’t it?” said Ward at one point in her interview, while McCabe noted: “Any job the manager asks me to do, I’m going to do it, whether that’s playing higher up, in the full-back areas. Everyone knows me, I’ll play anywhere. I’ll always just do what I’m asked.” “We’re at the start of our journey with Carla and the coaching staff coming in, a change of system, there’s going to be hiccups like this. It shouldn’t have been that big of a margin tonight, but we’ll pick ourselves up,” the Arsenal star added. “We’re a great bunch of players, I know the girls fucking love — sorry, absolutely love playing for their country and we won’t put in a performance like that again.” View 4 comments Send Tip or Correction Embed this post To embed this post, copy the code below on your site Email “'Completely unacceptable': Ward and McCabe on Ireland's nightmare defeat to Slovenia”. Recipient's Email Feedback on “'Completely unacceptable': Ward and McCabe on Ireland's nightmare defeat to Slovenia”. Your Feedback Your Email (optional) Report a Comment Please select the reason for reporting this comment. Please give full details of the problem with the comment... This is YOUR comments community. Stay civil, stay constructive, stay on topic. Please familiarise yourself with our comments policy before taking part. 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