Vera Pauw has hit out at people who bought tickets for last Thursday’s play-off clinching win over Finland but didn’t turn up.
Despite the game selling out within half-an-hour of the tickets going on sale, there were 900 empty seats. It was still a record breaking crowd of just 6,952.
Pauw claimed that there were thousands of disappointed young girls who couldn’t get to the game because of the speed with which the tickets sold.
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“There were a series of empty seats. They have bought tickets and didn’t show up and that is a real shame. Because there were thousands of girls who wanted to come,” she said.
“The thing is what do you do? Our marketing department is dealing with it.
“We want it to be accessible for everybody. You could make the tickets more expensive but then you put pressure on people who may not have much.
“You want everyone to be able to attend.
“My honest feeling is that it comes down to the decency of people who buy the tickets.
“They know there are thousands of girls crying at home, literally crying at home because they could not go to the stadium.
“And they should take responsibility when you buy a ticket.”
The Girls in Green will play in front of a much smaller crowd on Tuesday evening in Senec, when they face hosts Slovakia.
But they will have no problem rising to the occasion - knowing that a win would earn them a bye to the second and final round of the European play-off system and significantly boost their hopes of World Cup qualification.
Asked about the size of the crowd expected on Tuesday, centre-half Louise Quinn said: “We are used to playing in so many different circumstances, be it club-wise or international.
“You have to adpat to everythign that you come across. For us, you take what you are given at an away game. You don't know what is being thrown at you."
Pauw is missing four key players against Slovakia - Megan Connolly, Ruesha Littlejohn and Niamh Fahey through injury and the suspended Jamie Finn.
“We had a huge emotional explosion on Thursday,” said Pauw, referring to the play-off clinching win last week.
“The biggest thing is to get back on the ground and load your emotions up to another fight, because there is no game won without a fight.
“That is the biggest task, but we don't do it with stress.
“We do it more concentrating on the tasks the moment we work and relax out of that situation, and do the things that we have to do very well.”
Slovakia claimed a point in Tallaght last November and Pauw added: “We don't underestimate Slovakia. This is a very, very good footballing team.
“They had a good sense of positional play, they have the skills to execute that in a small space.
“If you can say there's a lot of street footballers in it, very mobile and know exactly what they do on that pitch.
“It is a very dangerous squad, they drew against Finland, against us, only small losses against Sweden, so we are fully prepared tomorrow.”
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