“We all dream of playing professional football, like some of the Northern Ireland senior women’s team, and it’s an added incentive to impress when it all starts next week.
“It would also be great if the tournament encourages more girls to play football and hopefully we’ll have plenty of young fans at the matches.”
Emma’s passion for the game was ignited at the age of four, kicking a ball about in the garden with her sister.
Team football meant playing alongside boys but Emma excelled and was marked out early as a leader by skippering her side.
Frank Lampard and Steven Gerrard were childhood heroes but now her footballing role models, including England winger Karen Carney, are found in the female ranks.
It reflects the growth and increased profile of women’s football, with Northern Ireland but one example.
From a starting point of 18 teams in the 1970s, the NI Women’s Football Association now boasts 55 sides.
There is also the elite Women’s Premiership, a seven-team league formed last year and where Emma hones her skills.