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Strong family bond fires McEvoy’s green dream

Peamount star hopes good form at club level can propel her towards wearing Ireland shirt worn with pride by her goalscoring grandfather

Alannah McEvoy of Peamount United during the FAI Women's Senior Cup final against Cork City last December. Photo: Stephen McCarthy/Sportsfile Expand

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Alannah McEvoy of Peamount United during the FAI Women's Senior Cup final against Cork City last December. Photo: Stephen McCarthy/Sportsfile

Alannah McEvoy of Peamount United during the FAI Women's Senior Cup final against Cork City last December. Photo: Stephen McCarthy/Sportsfile

Alannah McEvoy of Peamount United during the FAI Women's Senior Cup final against Cork City last December. Photo: Stephen McCarthy/Sportsfile

Aidan Fitzmaurice

It happened so long ago that visual evidence, via an outlet like YouTube, is hard to find.

But the achievements in football of the late Andy McEvoy are not only still remembered by his family but are also driving on another generation of footballers and their dreams.

Former Ireland international McEvoy, who died in 1994 at the age of 55, is one of only two Irish players to finish a season as top scorer in England’s top flight. John Aldridge did it with Liverpool (1987/’88) but Bray native and Blackburn Rovers player McEvoy, who was joint top scorer (along with the legendary Jimmy Greaves) in the 1964/’65 season, was the only Irish-born player to achieve that.

“Clips of him scoring those goals are very hard to find, there’s not much on the internet. But I have read all the books we have at home about him,” says Alannah McEvoy, Andy’s granddaughter and a prospective senior international, who is currently lining out for Peamount United.

“When I was growing up, my dad was always telling me stories about my granddad, he played for Ireland and Blackburn and he’s my inspiration, the memories we have of him drive me on.

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“People don’t really know the story of my granddad and what an achievement that was, to be top scorer in the English First Division, but I think he’d have wanted it that way as he was so humble.

“I want to wear the green shirt to make him proud, I know I’d think of him every time I played and that’s why it’s my dream, to play for the senior Ireland team.”

International recognition for Alannah (20) may have to wait, as she’s yet to get the call from Vera Pauw, though an injury sustained in pre-season with Peamount denied her any chance of making the squad for the recent double-header with Denmark and Belgium.

That injury keeps former Shelbourne player McEvoy out of her side’s game today, the Peamount-Shelbourne clash in the WNL already down as a game which will say a lot about who will triumph in the division this season, but she hopes to be back in full training next week. And Ireland’s call is one she’s desperate to get, her ambitions boosted by the impressive displays of home-based players in the most recent internationals.

“I haven’t been called up yet but that’s the aim, to get into the senior Irish squad, that’s the challenge,” says the Wicklow native.

“I was in the home-based squads but I want to do well in the league and impress the management. It’s tough for the home-based players as we’re not full time, but we have players who are showing the way.

“Last week against Denmark and Belgium we had people like Jamie Finn and Emily Whelan involved, they were brilliant. Claire Walsh was the best player on the pitch in the Belgium game, she was unbelievable, so when we have players from our league involved and doing well, you can see they are up to it, so watching them makes me think, if I can play against them every week in the WNL and compete, I can get to their levels.

“I’d love to go and play abroad but I need to do well in the league here to make that happen, and playing in the Champions League this year should help. We showed last year that an Irish club is good enough to play at that level so we want to try again this season, see how far we can go.”

While the Republic’s side lost both friendlies, the Northern Ireland team sent ripples which were felt right across the island when they beat Ukraine in a play-off to reach the European Championship finals. “Everyone in Ireland was cheering on the North this week and it says a lot, if they can do it, why can’t we? They’re not known for doing well at senior level and they have qualified so we can hope to do the same,” McEvoy says.

The international scene is now on hold for a few months, so the focus is very much on the WNL season. McEvoy knows that, as champions, Peamount are there to be taken down by rivals, with her former club, Shels, leading the charge.

“This is a huge game for us today, Shels and Peamount have been two of the top sides in the league, every game between the two of the clubs will always be tough, and I know a good few of their players as I was at Shels for three-and-a-half years,” she says.

“We go out every game saying we don’t concede, with the attacking players we have in the side I know we’ll win once we don’t concede. We’re a good footballing side but Shels have a good squad this year.

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“It’s going to be tough again, teams are getting better, the aim for us is to win as many trophies as we can and also do well in Europe, we want to compete in the Champions League.

“We have lost a few players and not signed too many, we’ve promoted a few girls from the underage teams, asked them to play up but they are brilliant. We had a strong squad last season, we nearly had two starting elevens, we had subs who could always impact a game but the squad now is smaller, so it’s a different way of doing things, we lost the likes of Niamh Fahey, to Glasgow, we lost Jade Reddy and Niamh Barnes as well and they are hard to replace.”

The meeting of Peamount and Shelbourne (PRL Park, 6pm) is the pick of today’s ties in the WNL. Bohemians, who went down 3-1 in Galway last week, look to their home form to get them back on track as they host Cork City (Oscar Traynor Centre, 2pm). After an impressive start, Galway are away for the first time, in Dublin to face DLR Waves (Belfield, 6pm).

Tomorrow, Treaty United play their first home match as Wexford Youths head to Jackson Park (2pm).

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