Moloney played the full 90 minutes in the 0-2 defeat by Austria and her assured performance earned her many plaudits as she finally achieved a life-long ambition to play at senior level for Ireland.
A member of the Ireland U17 squad that reached the European Championship final and the quarter-finals of the FIFA World Cup in 2010, Moloney had had to bide her time for his first cap but admitted she was still surprised when Ronan told her she would be playing in Ireland’s Cyprus Cup opener.
“If I’m honest, I welled up a little bit. I got teary,” recalled Moloney. “It’s a massive thing for me having come through all the age groups. Sue said I was starting and then she said: ‘You look shocked’. I genuinely was shocked, but obviously delighted.
“I was really nervous going into the game. I thought we played really well. I tried to do what was asked of me in the meeting beforehand. The goals were one on ones which are hard to deal with. I was just delighted to make a save in the second half because they got three chances and scored two of them.”
English-born Moloney qualifies for Ireland through her father’s parents who hailed from Cavan and Tipperary and her only disappointment was that her dad wasn’t in Cyprus to see her debut.
“I am a bit disappointed that my dad couldn’t be here. He keeps texting me saying how proud he is. He comes to nearly all the games but couldn’t get to Cyprus so he’s gutted he didn’t see it. But he is absolutely delighted for me.”
While a lot of her underage colleagues have broken into the senior team and started collecting caps, Moloney has had to bide her playing understudy to Ireland’s legendary goalkeeper Emma Byrne.
“I guess at the start when you come into the squad you are just happy to be in the squad. I looked up to Emma Byrne from a young age so it was great to be working with her. Over the time as I got called into more squads and it got longer and longer, I wondered would it ever happen. But Sue spoke to me about a few things she would like me to work on and now I’ve done it. It has been worth the wait, that’s probably the best way to describe it.”
Moloney became a full-time professional over the winter as Reading get ready to start their first season in England’s top flight following a successful promotion campaign last year and she believes it can only help her.
“Being in a professional environment will hopefully help me to push on. It’s a step up for us. A lot of us have gone professional so we are in training every day sometimes twice a day. There is more strength and conditioning, more recovery and stuff like that now. It is going to be a massive year now for us and our main aim is to stay in that league because, for most of us, that’s our job now.”
Ireland will face Italy in their second game at the Cyprus Cup on Friday afternoon in Larnaca (15:30 Irish Time) and Moloney hopes they can start turning the performances into points.
“All of the girls are looking to get back on track with a win and carry on the good performance that we had against Austria and hopefully build on it and take it on into Italy tomorrow.”
