ABERDEEN MIDFIELDER EILIDH SHORE HAS GOT USED TO WINNING AWARDS OVER THE PAST FEW SEASONS. IN ADDITION TO HER BACK-TO-BACK LEAGUE WINNERS MEDALS, SHE PICKED UP THE PLAYER OF THE SEASON AWARD WHEN IN SWFL1 NORTH AND LAST SEASON WAS AWARDED PLAYERS PLAYER OF THE YEAR, AN HONOUR THAT MEANT A LOT TO HER.

“It’s always a special award to win. It feels good to be recognised by your team mates and that they see the work you’re putting in. It was a tough long season and to be awarded with that at the end of it was really nice. It shows that your contributions have been beneficial and it also gives you confidence going forward”.

Now playing in the top flight of Scottish women’s football, Shore is another in the Dons squad who started with Aberdeen Ladies from a young age.

“I guess I initially got into football because my dad and brother always had an interest in it. I started at a local community centre that had training sessions and I went along with a few people I knew from school. It just went from there and I joined Aberdeen Ladies at eleven or twelve years old and since then I’ve just continued up through all the age groups”.

That route up through the Aberdeen Ladies teams is now one that leads to the women’s side, something that Eilidh says is important.

“Women’s football has progressed massively in the last few years and it is much bigger now than when I was younger. It’s massive for the young girls at Aberdeen Ladies now to see other players that have achieved getting into the women’s team. It gives them something to aim for from when they are young girls and it’s great for the women’s team to have that pathway”.

Shore’s ability has been recognised with involvement with the national side and she feels that spending time with Scotland can help her development.

“I’ve had two years of international football which have been really good. I played with and against some really good players which has helped me to improve my game. When you’re playing really good teams like Germany you learn a different way of playing, you see less of the ball so you need to learn to adapt and play in a different way, so international football is really good for that. You train with the same players every day at your club so when you go away you try and learn from players from other teams and understand how different players do things”.

The journey to SWPL1 began in SWFL1 North two seasons ago, Shore was club player of the year in that campaign during which she says the focus was always on getting back to the top flight.

“We went into that season after the disappointment of back-to-back relegations but straight away, the aim was to get back to SWPL one. We got promoted, fairly comfortably in the end, we didn’t know much about the league going into it as we hadn’t played against many of the teams before but as soon as the club took us over, we we’re just focussed on getting back to the top”.

Despite being promoted after an undefeated league season, Aberdeen was still not seen as one of the favourites for a second straight promotion.

“We were always going for promotion and to aim for the title. When we heard teams and people not listing us as one of the favourites, that pushed us on more and we wanted to show them that we could win the title. I think we proved that in the very first game against Dundee United, we came from behind late on to win and that really set us up for the whole season”.

That SWPL2 campaign was one that was hugely disrupted by the pandemic with players being forced to train on their own whilst in lockdown.

“We were getting sent stuff to do on your own but if you don’t have a game to aim for you don’t have that end goal. We knew that if we wanted to achieve promotion that we had to keep ourselves fit during the breaks in the season. When it restarted, we had two games a week for a month and that was difficult after such a long break. We managed to use the squad well and rotate players and got to where we wanted to be”.

Where they wanted to be was back in SWPL1 and now that they are there Eilidh is confident her team can compete in the division, whilst acknowledging it will be a challenge.

“It’s obviously going to be tough because there are some top teams and players in this league. We know that we are capable of competing with every team. I think we showed against Celtic that we were in the game right until the end and that they are one the professional teams in the league. The Motherwell game in the cup was the first game against an SWPL one team so that let us see what we were going to be up against. We were able to grind out a performance and get the result that we needed. That win was really important to show that we can compete with these teams and it gave us a boost of confidence ahead of the league season”.

Shore is happy with the team’s start to the campaign and the 19-year-old welcomes the increased interest that comes with games in SWPL1.

“Getting points on the board early is always important and it doesn’t matter how you get that done. We’ve been grinding out results and two clean sheets in our last two games have been important as well. We’ve got good squad depth and the players that have come in over the last few weeks have played big roles and shown how good they are”.

“I think the coverage that the women’s game is getting now is exciting. Seeing games being shown live on tv and having the highlights on every week is really important for growing the game. The cameras being there isn’t really something that you notice when you’re focussed on the game. The crowd being there definitely helps when you can hear them cheering you on. Last season nobody could be at the games so it has been great to have people back. In the last few minutes of a game when it’s tight or you’re getting tired the crowd can really help you”.