Newly crowned Sports Direct Women’s Premiership Champions Glentoran Women will be presented with the trophy tomorrow evening at Ashfield after they play their final league match against fifth placed Linfield.
The girls clinched the title on Sunday with their impressive 3-0 away win over Crusaders Strikers, and what a season its been. They have won 15 of their 17 league games, remaining unbeaten and have just drawn home and away against outgoing champs Cliftonville. They have scored 99 goals with only 7 in reply. We also have a number of candidates for NI Player of the Year, the leagues top scorer Kerry Beattie with 27 (35 in all competitions) while no fewer than 7 Glentoran players have played for the Northern Ireland senior team this season alone.
Last time we played Linfield was back in June when 2 from Joely Andrews and a Kerry Beattie gave the Glens a hard fought 3-2 win at Midgeley Park. In May the score was 3-1 at the same venue in the County Antrim Cup. On that occasion the goals came from internationals Emma McMaster, Emily Wilson and Nadene Caldwell. So the Blues made the Glens work for their wins.
Head Coach Kim Turner: “We are looking forward to Friday, but we are not forgetting that we still have a job to do. Linfield are a great young team and we have to be prepared and we will be after our preparations this week. We are a group with high standards and we would love to finish on a high.
Winning the league with a game to go has allowed us to relax, but not be complacent. We are delighted to be League Champions - after working with this group for a year, its everything they deserve. It couldn't happen to a better group of people. Winning is part of our culture and I'm delighted to be a part of that.
We know the men have a game on the same night, but we really hope we can get a big crowd down and finish our league campaign on a high.”
Kick Off at Ashfield is at 7.45pm.
