“THIS just isn’t our season,” admitted Cork City midfielder Éabha O’Mahony shortly after her side lost their fifth game in a row at Turner’s Cross.

They are now nine games without a win in the Women’s National League and are the only side yet to record a victory, following their 2-0 loss to Galway at home last Saturday afternoon.

While some performances still could have been better, the young squad has had to deal with a number of injuries and a change in managers so far this season.

Not that O’Mahony wants to make any excuses.

“Obviously we’re not getting the results that we wanted but we are still growing as a team,” she said.

“We are making mistakes but we are learning from them.

“This isn’t our season but we will definitely take it as a stepping stone — we still have lots to learn.

“We are a young enough team. There’s been a lot of chopping and changing so it has been hard to adapt to all that but we are still putting in the hours and we are mature for our age.

“But there are other young teams as well,” she said. “We are young but maybe we just need to mature faster.

We have been unlucky with injuries this year as well but look, what can you do?

“You just have to adapt to anything that is thrown your way.”

O’Mahony picked up a couple of knocks in that bruising defeat to Galway but that will not prevent her from joining up with the Republic of Ireland senior squad this week.

Vera Pauw has selected the talented youngster in her 23-player squad for the international friendly double-header against Iceland in Reykjavik this Friday and the following Tuesday, which will hopefully present her with at least one more senior cap.

“I got a dead leg, I kept getting hit on it for some reason but I said I would get another bit of freeze spray on it again,” said O’Mahony.

“I can’t wait to join up with them, especially being up at the home-based training with them there, when all the international players were back recently, the likes of Katie [McCabe] and Heather [Payne].

It’s just really enjoyable testing yourself against them and the pace they play at. From a development standpoint, it’s really good to be thrown in at the deep end and learn.

“It will be a week of building and learning and see how I do basically, so I’m looking forward to it. It’ll be a bit colder than it is here but yeah, I can’t wait to go.

“I’ll just try my best in training and I will only play if I prove myself in training.

“I’m going into it, not with high expectations, but just taking it as it comes and trying to do my best,” she said.