'I hadn't a clue who Gary was' - Abbie Larkin on breaking Kelly's World Cup record
A blissful innocence recovered Abbie Larkin from her unawareness of whose record she had broken to become Ireland’s youngest World Cup participant.
Gary Kelly was 19, Larkin 18.
When Kelly won the last of his 53 caps in 2003, Larkin was still two years away from being born.
It offers a natural explanation as to why the dressing-room conversation following Thursday’s cameo swept over her head.
She was the oblivious bystander to her record dominating the discussion.
“The girls said something about Gary, and I hadn’t a clue who Gary was,” confessed the teen, stunned to be informed of her record-breaking feat.
“I was like, ‘I don’t know who this is!’. I don’t know if that was a bad thing or not. It was amazing hearing that from the girls.”
Such was her impact on the bench in the last half hour as Ireland chased an equaliser against the co-host that she’s in the frame to be promoted for a starting slot against Canada.
Ireland took the arduous five-and-a-half hour flight from their Brisbane flight on Sunday to Perth, where they’ll meet the Olympic champions, held scoreless by Nigeria in their opening Group B fixture.
The youngest member of the squad is soaking up the experience.
“This it is my first World Cup and I am definitely taking in everything, enjoying every moment,” she said, in particular citing the joy of a 75,000 full-house against the Matildas.
“I was actually really nervous coming on against Australia. I just heard the fans screaming and I am thinking ‘oh my God’.
“It was like white noise really. Once I could hear my teammates, that was fine because it took me about five minutes to get the nerves out.”
Italia ’90 fever had engulfed Larkin’s locality of Ringsend in Dublin, bunting and posters stretching
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