FORGET Kenny Shiels, or his son Dean, the NI coach – it's Harper Robson that Sarah McFadden is always out to impress. Not her club boss, but her daughter, who bears the Bellaghy woman's married surname.
The woman who led Northern Ireland out against Norway at St Mary's Stadium in Southampton, with regular captain Marissa Callaghan on the bench, said that they are always 'doing it for the kids':
"It is the reason why we play. Me and Marissa, it's all we talk about since we have had kids. The only person we want to make happy is them.
"Kenny [Shiels] always says it, the only people that you need are your family and that's what it is like.
"So after a game when we get to see our children you forget what you have just done, the game we have just played, because that's all that matters at the end of the day - your family and the people who love you."
Indeed McFadden revealed that becoming as mother had altered her approach to playing football, making her much more positive:
"Before I had Harper I had a lot of fear. We went to Holland, playing in front of 35,000 and I didn't enjoy one minute of it. I hated every moment.
"After that, it was like a switch in mentality. 'What's the point? I have all these amazing experiences all my life and I'm not enjoying them.'
"Since I had Harper, I'm getting to play against some of the best players in the world. I want to give a good account of myself, and I want to be able to come off the pitch and be like to Harper, 'I played a Ballon d'Or winner last night and she didn't score'.
"It's little things now and that is the reason that we play. It's the same for all of us, we have so many people to inspire that we don't want to be disappointing a while.
"We want to build this game and this is the biggest occasion to do it. Every single person is trying to inspire our little country. We are loving every minute of it and we are so happy to be together."
A loving mother she may be, but 'Mac' should perhaps be nicknamed 'SMac' given the physicality with which she marked Norway's star striker Ada Hegerberg.
She blushed when asked about that, then said with a smile: "I hope she has more bruises than me. It comes as a defensive unit, the back three - or back nine, as Kenny [Shiels] calls it - but it's nice we have stopped her from scoring.
"She is one of the best players and she was such a lovely girl. We were happy that we kept her out."
Such is the selfless nature of the NI squad, McFadden insisted that she would rather have had Callaghan wearing the captain's armband, but was obviously delighted to do so:
"It was incredible. Of course I would have loved to walk about behind Marissa but to carry that armband and for Kenny to give me that responsibility when Marissa wasn't able to do it was a great moment for me and my family.
"We didn't feel nerves in the changing room or anything like that there, it was just when we came out to the fans, to the whole occasion - the first 15 minutes we were just getting up to speed with Norway.
"They are so fast, and it took us those 15 minutes to settle in the game. After that we started to grow in confidence. We can take loads of positives from our performance after that.
"Going into the Austria game we need to make sure we were on it from the start and because these teams will punish you."
Looking after her young daughter might be a helpful factor in that, after a 'wardrobe malfunction' by left wing-back Demi Vance led to NI's delayed entrance onto the Euros stage:
"It was weird because Demi messed everything up, that's why we were so late. She had the wrong socks on so I couldn't really think of anything other than getting Demi out of the tunnel.
"As soon as they said Northern Ireland were coming out there was that roar from the GAWA, and it was incredible to think we have these people supporting us.
"This is the Euros, we are here now."
