It was a week of upsets in the Danske Bank Women’s Premiership as Derry City secured their second win of the season by beating third-placed Crusaders and Cliftonville slipped up in the title race.
Wins for the Candystripes and Glentoran - who leapfrog the Reds into top stop - alongside a goalless but entertaining draw at Solitude set up an intriguing final few weeks of the campaign.
Here is some of the reaction from around the grounds:-
Lauren Wade, Glentoran
“It was great to get the three points and the performance too.
“In the first half we dominated the possession but didn’t create as many chances but in the second half I thought we came out and did everything the coaches asked.
“It’s going to be an exciting finish but we are just going to focus on ourselves - its one game a time and we’ll control what we can control.
“Every team in this league is competitive and we said from the start that every game we play is a tough one.
“You never know what can happen and you always must perform on the night.”
Marissa Callaghan, Cliftonville
“It was a tough game for us against a young Linfield side who looked like they wanted it more.
“They made it really hard for us - we created some good chances but we weren’t able to take them.
“It wasn’t our night and we move on to the next one - we have to keep going.”
Phil Lewis, Linfield coach
“I’m delighted to come away with a point - although it could even have been three points.
“We put in a really good performance both collectively and individually, and our goalkeeper made a couple of excellent saves at crucial moments.
“We have been working very hard over the past few weeks to improve our performances and get the end results, but it’s not easy for such young players at this level.
“Only three of our team is over 19 and most of them are in the 17s age bracket - we have asked them to play football and enjoy themselves.
“We added that steel we were looking for tonight and put it up to a good, physical Cliftonville team - there were plenty of fouls against us.
“It’s nice to hear them buzzing again and we are now looking to finish the season strong ahead of the next campaign.”
Caroline Gallagher, Derry City
“We came in from last week’s performance of losing so heavily and proved ourselves that we were much better than that.
“After having our heads down after that it was really tough so to come away with three points from the next game is fantastic.
“Every single player put in a shift and we deserved the points.”
