Lynsey’s building dreams in the West
Galway Utd skipper inspiring young girls to get involved
HEAVY rain in the west meant that Galway United’s Premier Division game with Cork City was moved from Eamonn Deacy Park at the eleventh hour last weekend. Relocating to the astroturf of Moyne Villa’s ground in Headford didn’t knock a feather out of the Tribeswomen, as they swept the Rebels aside.
Former Ireland international Julie-Ann Russell, who has only returned after maternity leave, scored a hat-trick in the 5-0 win, something that brings a smile to captain Lynsey McKey’s face. ‘She’s a freak. I don’t know anyone else who would come back after having a baby and score a hat-trick.’
The last-minute move is the only thing that has gone wrong for Phil Trill’s impressive side in the opening weeks of the season. They begin their defence of the Avenir Sports All-Island Cup this evening in Sligo, sitting pretty at the top of the league, their 2-0 win away to Athlone Town on the opening day serving notice of their aspirations for the year ahead.
And the locals are buying into the team. The pity about moving from Terryland was that they had sold more than 600 tickets for the Cork game.
‘That would have been huge for us, and you can see the amount of young girls that are coming to our games, it is increasing every week,’ the Clare native says.
With big crowds in Dalymount Park and Tallaght Stadium last weekend, it might feel a little odd that the Women’s Premier Division takes a break this week, but the All-Island Cup might also become a central part of the continued growth and development of the game on both sides of the border. With Linfield heading to PRL Park to play Peamount and Shelbourne heading to Solitude tomorrow to meet Cliftonville, the competition still feels novel and fresh.
‘I hope it can continue to grow over the next few years, because it is a great experience to play teams from the Northern Ireland league. You are playing against players that you normally wouldn’t get to do that unless you are playing internationally. We played Cliftonville in the final last year and I think they had five or six Northern Ireland internationals on the team,’ McKey said.
‘This year, we have Glentoran in our group, who are fully professional and have some internationals in their team. When you are testing yourself against that kind of quality, it will only bring you on.’
And by claiming Galway United’s first silverware in 25 years, which was quickly followed by the men’s side winning the First Division, the Tribeswomen gained confidence and belief that they have taken into this campaign.
‘When we won the cup last season, we finished the league out quite well, because it was such a boost for us. And we have been able to bring that momentum into this season. We have made a good start but it is still early days. We hope to be in the mix come the end of the season, but we are just taking it one game at a time.’
Still, last week’s clean sheet was the side’s 14th in their last 16 games. When you are keeping goals out at one end and scoring them at the other, as Russell and McKey can do, then Galway have a chance of having a big say in the title race.
This is the Galway skipper’s 14th season in the league, having joined United from Cork City in 2016. She has experienced the ups and downs of the women’s game, including Galway WFC going out of existence and being subsumed into United a couple of years ago.
At the All-Island Cup launch on Thursday, where McKey had to bring the trophy from the west, she looked at younger players like Bohemians’ Aoibhe Brennan and Peamount’s Louise Masterson and it made her wish she was more than a decade younger.
‘I was just saying to the girls there that I would just love to be in their shoes now, the opportunities they are getting and the exposure that the league is getting, in the media and social media, TG4 being involved. It is going from strength to strength and it does make me wish that I was at the start of my career,’ says the 33-year-old, who works