Cliftonville, Glentoran and Crusaders all recorded victories in gameweek five of the Danske Bank Women’s Premiership.
While the Reds and Crues battled out 1-0 victories over Sion Swifts and Linfield respectively, there was a goal-fest at the Brandywell as Glentoran ran out 8-2 victors over Derry City.
Here is the post-match reaction from the games:
Amy McGivern, Crusaders
“We have been a bit disappointed in the first few weeks, not with our performances but we haven’t got the results we have been looking for.
“This was a really good team performance against a strong Linfield side - it was important to get that early goal and then to control the game from there.
“That was my first goal of the season and I’m delighted personally and now we’ll look to take this performance into the coming games to get more points.”
Marissa Callaghan, Cliftonville
“It was a tough game and a really scrappy game - they make it really hard for you to play because they are constantly on your back when you have the ball.
“They put four or five players high up the pitch and went very direct, so that pinned us in and denied us the space we wanted.
“We couldn’t play our game because they didn’t give us any time to play.
“We got a little frustrated in the first half but we got the early lead and despite chances for both teams in the second half, we got another win.
“We are back in training on Friday so we will have a look at what we got right and wrong.
“We have got a lot of quality in our side and we are enjoying our football.
“The new management team have come in here and completed changed the culture of the club, and we have Under-19 internationals coming through as well as senior internationals.
“Last year we didn’t have any 1-0 games, but we want a really competitive game where you have to compete really hard to get any win.
“This is my 20th season but I have so much respect for the young players coming through our ranks and hopefully my experience can help them grow and develop as players.”
Paula McGrory, Derry City
“That was my first goal of the season and it was good to get off the mark, but this was always going to be one of the toughest games of the season as they’re the defending champions.
“The scoreline probably didn’t reflect the way the game went - we did a lot of running and we had a couple of chances that we were a little bit disappointed we didn’t take in the first half.
“We thought the game could have been tighter but the second half was too open and it got away from us a bit.”
Stephen Murray, Glentoran coach
“We felt we needed a bit of a kickback after disappointing results against Linfield and Cliftonville but tonight the girls were on it - we played much quicker and we were sharper.
“We had more conviction in front of goal and overall we were very happy.
“We need to cut out the errors in our defence and we believe the goals are ones we could prevent with better transitional play.
“Over the course of the season, the goals we do concede will be rectified.”
