First league win ‘very important’ for Clare & Shine

*Clare manager, Graham Shine. Photograph: Burren Eye Photography

Clare ladies football manager Graham Shine had no hesitation in admitting that Sunday’s victory over Westmeath was “very important for us”.

Speaking shortly after seeing his charges record a sixteen point win at Athlone on Sunday he said, “Westmeath probably thought they would take us today after the Roscommon game last week, a result we were all disappointed with. In division 2 every team is a good team. There was a mighty focus in the camp this week. The girls knew what happened last week and we didn’t have to tell them. There were a lot of learnings. We could see in the warm u that there was focus and we came out of the blocks and were really clinical in the first half”.

Shine continued, “in the second half we were able to get seven subs on. It was very positive and we move on now to Tipperary in two weeks time. This win takes us away from the bottom of the table but you cant rest as it’s a really competitive division”.

Noting that building for the championship is important he said “we have big games to come. We have a lot of new girls in, there are eight gone from the panel from last year, and you are asking a seventeen or eighteen year old to take their places. This is only game there, it takes a lot of time to build it in. We are moving in the right direction. If we can stay up in Division 2 it will be massive, the big thing is to give everyone game time and be ready for championship”.

Agreeing that “there was good team work today”, the Kerryman said “the girls are in good shape, it’s just getting the young girls the experience needed. We have five girls who are doing the Leaving Cert and that’s a lot and two of them started today. It’s about getting them used to playing senior football and blending it in with the Fidelmas, Chloes, and Ailish’. Its looking good but today is just one game. We got our points that’s a job done and we park it and move on to two weeks”, he concluded.