They say a week is a long time in football, so in the case of Hannah Innes, it begs the question ‘How long is a year?’ The answer: A very long time.

Coming into the 2023/24 campaign, The Aberdeen native had just returned to the club following a mixed second half season loan spell at Dryburgh Athletic in the SWF Championship, where fitness was a rarity, off the back of a first half of the season at the Balmoral where gametime suffered a similar fate. 12 months on, and things are beginning to look a bit different for Hannah.

Impressing during pre-season Innes found herself as a regular in new manager Clint Lancaster’s XI, succeeding in a previously unfamiliar wing back role. By May, after two matchday squad appearances in past seasons at Pittodrie that saw zero minutes on the pitch, Innes finally made her Pittodrie bow when she started against Montrose and capped off her night by scoring from the best part of 35 yards into the Merkland Road end, described by Hannah as “100% the standout moment in my career so far”. It was a coming-of-age performance from the 22-year-old as her breakthrough season began to wind down.

A successful 2023/2024 saw a semi professional contract handed out to Innes, testament to the hard work put in during the season gone. It was finally all coming together.

Speaking at the ScottishPower Women’s Premier League launch event in Glasgow, Hannah stopped to reflect on the last few years and look ahead to what is in store over the next nine months.

‘’It was a tough time going out on loan. I knew it was something I had to do, I needed to build my fitness levels, and get myself ready to try and get back into the team. When I look back, it was beneficial for me, I know how much it helped me going into last season. As the season went on, I became more and more important to the team. I am still young, but I am one of the ones who has been here the longest! I think now is a chance to kick on and really cement my place.”

“I feel like an Aberdeen player now. Last season I was a bit frustrated not to get a contract during the season, so I really pushed myself to earn one towards the end. Like I say, I am an experienced player in the squad now.”

As has become a recurring theme going into the last few seasons, it has been another summer of change for AFC Women both on the pitch and in the dugout. Lancaster is gone, Colin Bell, former international level manager and Women’s champions league winner is in. For Hannah, it is all a bit surreal:

“It was exciting meeting Colin. He tells us a lot of stories about his past and his experiences in football, both as a player in Germany and as a manager, it’s interesting. He comes from such a strong background, he has so much knowledge that he can implement on us. It is another step in the right direction, appointing someone of his experience. Now it means we need to step up as well and try and better last season.”

With Jessica Broadrick, Elidh Shore and SWPL1 top goal scorer Bayley Hutchison also all departing Cormack Park over the summer, Bell has been left to prepare a new look XI for the campaign and he moved quick to add two former senior Dons in Natasha Bruce (30) and Johan Fraser (26), both returning from Dundee United to his roster, shrewd additions to supplement an extremely young squad.

The Tangerine takeover continued with Megan Sidey, Nicola Jamieson and Niamh Noble all also part of United’s squad last campaign, committing to Aberdeen for 24/25.

“They have all moved onto full-time football, they all deserve it. We need to all come together now and stick with it. It has been good to have a couple experienced faces coming back. They knew most of us already, and know how we like to play, so it’s been good.”

“All the girls have been easy to get to know. They haven’t stuck out at all, we’ve all gelled. I think we are a really close-knit team.”

A champions league winning manager brings Champions league winning methods and for Innes, the training has been good since their return to action at the start of July. “Colin brings a new style of play, which is always challenging, but we are ready to implement it, starting on Sunday” Hannah explains. “However, we have all adapted well, and are forward to the start of the season.”

With contracts inked, a new manager and an abundance of players in the door, it is almost time to play some football. It all begins on Sunday the 11th with a rumble against league runners up Rangers at the Balmoral Stadium in front of the BBC Alba cameras to get things going ahead of what will be a lengthy campaign.

“We are really looking forward to it, it is going to be a tough game, but we are ready to ramp things up in training this week as we prepare. We know we won’t have a lot of the ball; we need to make good use of it when we get it, try and get forward when we can. We all know it isn’t going to be easy, they finished 2nd for a reason, it will be tough, but we are excited.”

“We haven’t spoken about targets in terms of league positions, but the goal is always to better than last season, which means we need to push for the top six, with three teams getting relegated, the top six is where we want to be. For myself last season I only scored the two goals, so I need to try and get more, we can say seven goals then as well, and I’ll try get a couple of assists as well!”