THE LUCKY ONES..

Katie's keen fo share magic moment in front of 38,000 crowd

- MARK MCCADDEN

THIS ONE is for the parents who have doubled up as taxi drivers and coaches, long before women's football reached a point where 38,000 tickets could be shifted for a senior international match.

It's for the referees, the countless volunteers and the thousands of players that lined out on pitches up and down the country in decades gone by.

They'll all be in the thoughts of the "lucky ones" this afternoon; the 11 that get to make history by starting against Northern Ireland in the first ever women's international to be staged at Aviva Stadium.

That's how skipper Katie McCabe describes the members of interim manager Eileen Gleeson's squad.