Malta v Northern Ireland: We need to ‘evolve and enhance’ in World Cup qualifier – Michael McArdle

Aged 32 and with 80 caps, winger Lauren Wade is one of the nine players in the current squad remaining from the Euro 2022 finals.

She has witnessed the squad evolve through former manager Tanya Oxtoby, and now again through McArdle’s short term in charge to date.

The Hearts winger said it had been a “really positive” first camp under McArdle.

“We’ve been getting to know each other over the past 10 days, and vice versa,” she said.

“We’ve been given a little bit of freedom to go and express ourselves, and you have to be brave when you play this.

“It’s been really exciting, and I think that showed on Tuesday night.”

Wade added the game on Tuesday was positive for the group and they are “feeling great”, but they cannot take anything for granted in Malta.

“It’s what we wanted [on Tuesday], but we know that a double header is always difficult and we’re coming out here knowing that it’s going to be a tough game.

“We know what we have to do, we’ve worked on it the last couple of days, we’ve reflected and we’re ready to go.”