League Preview by Therese Hartley

Ladies soccer is back in Clare after a break of around 10 years. Five clubs will compete in an under 15 League, namely Connolly Celtic, Bridge United, Lifford A, Lifford B  and Moneypoint. These clubs are affiliated to the Clare schoolboys and schoolgirls soccer league.

Schoolgirls soccer was last played in Clare in the late eighties and early nineties. It was established due to the success of teams, such as Cloughleigh, in the Community Games at county, Munster and National level.

U14 and U16 teams from Cloughleigh Celtic, Lifford, Newmarket Celtic, Kilkishen Celtic and Newtown, among others, competed in these League, Cup and Blitz competitions. These leagues continued through U17 and youths with two divisions of a senior league played during the same period.

Sheila Guerin from Woodstock Golf and Country Club presented a cheque to League registrar Gerry Woods as sponsorship for this league. CSSL intends to extend competitions to other age groups in the coming seasons, where interest is expressed from clubs.

Bridge United:

Manager of the Bridge United team is Margaret O’Halloran and she is looking forward to playing in the newly established League: “We take part in the Community Games during the summer so when Martin Hehir approached us to enter a team, we said we would.

I think the standard will be high. Lifford and Newtown will be better than us because they have more experience. Most of our players would have played school football but other than that, they wouldn’t have played much. We decided to enter the league so the girls could get a bit of fun and get involved in something. The training in general has been pretty good and it is something I’ve been pleased with.

We are looking forward to the matches. I think if we win one game, we’ll be happy. Throughout the season we’ll be looking for improvement.”

                                 Connolly Celtic:

Mike Hehir is excited by the prospect of the Clare League and is confident his team have the capabilities to  perform very well:
“I think this will be the best thing ever to happen for soccer in this county.

At under 13 level we won the county indoor championships in the Community Games a couple of years ago. We also won the Munster aspect but got beaten in the All-Ireland semi-final. Seven of that team are now under 15 so we will be looking to compete with the best.

We have enjoyed a lot of success – we have won the under 15 outdoor championships and also the under 12s.
We would fancy our chances against any team that’s there. We are on the go now for five years and we always wanted a league for the girls, something that we now have. I think we should be looking to include under 12 and under 13 age groups now too.

We have about 60 girls involved, with Sean Cregan and Terry Kennedy taking the girls from 8 up to 12 and then I take the 15s. We will be going out to win the League. We have a lot of good players and they have been in three Munster finals since their under 13 experience. I think the standard will be very high. Lifford, Newtown, Bridge United and Moneypoint, who have a very young squad, will ensure the competition will be tough. Any one of the four teams are capable of winning it.”

                                                     Lifford AFC:

Lifford have competed on a National stage over the past decade or so but this new venture is something
that excites manager, Damian Walsh: “I think it’s a great idea and I would like to see more teams enter and develop the League even further.

I would love to see Clare teams competing on a National level, such as in the Inter-county tournament in Cork where all the players from each of the teams would be pooled together. A squad would be picked which would then compete against other Leagues – such as Limerick and Cork.

For us, it will be good for our development. We have entered two teams into the League and this will especially benefit our younger players. We will be getting more match practice. Before we had to travel to other counties but we would prefer to play in Clare, against Clare sides.”

                     Moneypoint:


Manager, Declan Marrinan’s main aim for the upcoming season is to see an improvement in his players: “This is the first girls ladies soccer team back here so it’s something new. We would be building towards next year. We have a very young team with most of our players under 14s and under 13s. We’d like to do well though.

I think maybe the first game might be coming a bit too quick. We train in Doonbeg but have only had two nights so far. I’m sure the whole experience will be an eye opener but we have to start some place. We have some very good soccer players but we wouldn’t have played offside and other things like that.

The turnout at training has been very good with 22 coming the last night. The interest is certainly there. Getting the players interested and involved is important and that’s what we’re aiming for and then next year, we’d hope to be able to take the other teams on.”