NIFL Women’s Premiership in Focus: Nelson Nears 100 (Julie Nelson interview)

Two caps short of a century, and already the fourth most-capped player Northern Ireland has produced, Julie Nelson says she would never have dreamt of ninety when she debuted at the 2004 Algarve Cup. She now gives most of her time back to the pathway that did not exist when she started, coaching girls from ten to fifteen in the Irish FA’s Regional Excellence programme and working with the Under-17s and Under-19s, while studying for a postgraduate diploma in sports nutrition she hopes to make a career of. She is realistic about a small nation with two full-time players competing with the best, but points to a squad mixing experience and youth, and to a night in front of thirty thousand in the Netherlands.