The Press and Journal (Inverness, Highlands, and Islands)
Shore tipped to be new Dons skipper
Ex-Aberdeen Women skipper Kelly Forrest believes Eilidh Shore should be named the next Dons captain.
The captain’s armband is up for grabs after outgoing skipper Loren Campbell retired from football at the end of the season.
She was captain for one term, guiding the Dons to ninth in SWPL 1, after taking the reins from Forrest, who retired at the end of the 2021-22 campaign.
Forrest believes 21-yearold Shore has all the right qualities to take over from Campbell and lead the team.
The midfielder has been ever-present since Aberdeen returned to SWPL 1 – only missing three games from a possible 59 – and celebrated a century of appearances for the club in March.
All 56 of Shore’s top-flight appearances have come from the starting 11.
She has scored eight goals over both campaigns, including a strike against Rangers which was recently named Aberdeen Women’s goal of the season.
“Eilidh is one of those players who keeps herself very grounded, doesn’t get ahead of herself and leads by example,” said Forrest.
“She doesn’t need to talk the talk all the time because she’s such a consistent player defensively and she scores goals.
“Eilidh’s a very likeable person and gets along with everyone. I think that’s really important for cohesion because if you’ve got someone like her as captain, the team will want to win for her.
The ex-captain believes even though Shore is in the early stages of her career, she has already showcased her development as a leader.
“Eilidh is still very young and there probably hasn’t been an expectation on her to be as vocal as she has been,” added Forest.
“She’s supported Loren and Francesca (Ogilvie) as vice-captain really well.
“I think more recently there’s been more demand on Eilidh to try and build momentum. She’s always in the team, which is really important.
“She won the triple (player of the year, players’ player of the year and goal of the season) at the awards dinner and it reflects her impact – it was thoroughly deserved.
“Eilidh has constantly improved and it’s great to see her stepping up as a leader.
“She was quite quiet when she first joined but that’s probably just an age thing. She’s definitely come on in both her leadership qualities and her overall game.”