Women's Premiership: Coaching, culture and identity - the changes that sparked Cliftonville's title challenge

Cliftonville and Glentoran are embroiled in a thrilling title battle

Cliftonville have enjoyed a stellar renaissance this year as they bid to win their first Women's Premiership title.

The north Belfast club currently sit second in the table, level on points with leaders Glentoran having won 15 of their 18 games to date.

The two challengers face-off on Wednesday, where Glentoran know three points will all but guarantee them the title but the Reds cannot be discounted as they aim to take the race to the wire.

No matter what happens, it has been a remarkable turnaround for a club that looked to have lost direction in the past few years.

Flashback to a year ago and things were very different on and off the pitch at Solitude. In the condensed 2020 campaign in which each club played just 10 games, the Reds, under Seamus McCorry, finished fifth with just two victories.

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There was a huge upheaval at the club earlier this year as Cliftonville looked to restructure following that disappointing season. Martin Douglas came in as head of women's football, Brendan Lynch assumed the position of elite development coach, Clare Carson made the transition from player to coach and John McGrady was appointed as first-team manager.

Douglas, Lynch and McGrady are synonymous with the Reds, having previously been involved with the successful Cliftonville Olympic side that won the Premiership Development League last year.

"The pandemic meant that we had no football with Cliftonville Olympic, and around that time the Ladies had parted ways with their manager, so we were asked to come in and help them for the last few matches of their season," Douglas explains.

"We talked about new roles, the opportunities in the women's game and how we could help the club fulfil its potential. It was an exciting opportunity for us, so we decided to go for it."

McGrady echoes his sentiments and said taking on the role was a "straightforward decision".

"During this period, we were impressed by the players - their work rate, hunger to learn and improve, the ability within the group and the positive atmosphere in the squad," he said.

Higher standards

The new management team got to work swiftly in pre-season, setting standards which would, according to McGrady, help to bring about a "mentality shift" within the squad.

"Having been involved with the men's side of the club we saw first-hand how a team should run professionally and we felt that during our few weeks in charge at the backend of last season there was no reason why the Ladies side of the club couldn't be the same," he continued.

"Straight away we wanted to make things more professional, giving the players the best environment to be the best they could be and provide a platform for them to play their football. We were aware that standards across the board from training, kit, equipment, preparations, rules had to improve if we wanted to get to the place we feel this club deserves to be.

"Certain 'non-negotiables' were implemented, and the players bought into it and created the rest. They've set their own high standards and hold their own teammates accountable to them."

Cliftonville had five players in Northern Ireland's squad for September's World Cup qualifiers - captain Marissa Callaghan, Louise McDaniel and Kirsty McGuinness all scored

Carson, who joined the coaching set-up after an illustrious 20 year playing career, can see a noticeable difference in the squad a year on.

"I think the culture change and buy in from every member of the squad on what we want has been great and credit has to go to the players as they are setting the standards now with how they are preforming each week."

Setting high standards off the pitch, in Douglas' view, have only helped to improve the team on the pitch. "I think the biggest change is the quality of football on the pitch" he states.

"The players deserve massive credit for this, they have worked extremely hard all season in training, they've all made sacrifices for their teammates and bought into the fresh new ideas and training sessions delivered by John, Brendan, Clare and Stuart."

'It's an exciting journey to be part of'

Both Douglas and Carson are keen to stress that the Reds are not content to rest on their laurels, despite the vast improvements that have taken place this year.

"Before pre-season myself and the coaching team sat down and created depth charts to identify players we needed at the club. They spoke and, most importantly, listened to players," said Douglas.

"They inquired as to what they wanted from a management team on how to make them better players and develop their game, as well as selling our new Cliftonville project to them.

"Thankfully experienced players like Kirsty and Caitlin McGuiness, Louise McDaniel, Kelsie Burrows and Nicole Caldwell bought into it, as well as our younger signings like Grace McKimm and Shona Davis."

Fi Morgan is one of a number of exciting young players coming through Cliftonville's system

Carson believes that Cliftonville are on "an exciting journey" and added, "It is important to say that this is only the first year of trying to build and reshape the club on the women's side and it will be an ongoing building process every year,"

Douglas is similarly enthused by the future of the club, "We have set short, medium and long-term goals and we have a five-year plan in place" he said.

"Some goals have already been met, sooner than expected, so we have adapted to this and set new targets. As a club we obviously want to achieve success with silverware on the pitch and play in the Champions League, hopefully that will come sooner rather than later.

"We want to push as many young players as possible into the Northern Ireland Excellence pathway program so one day they can play for our senior side, as well as represent Northern Ireland at all different levels, like many of our current players."