Sion Swifts Ladies boss Tony McGinley believes his squad’s teenage stars can propel them into a top half finish in the Danske Bank Women’s Premiership.

McGinley has fielded seven teenagers across the team’s opening two league matches and while that has partly been prompted by player exits, there is no shortage of young talent at the club.

The Sion boss explained: “Managing a women’s team in the Premiership is probably the toughest job in football in this country – to remain competitive with huge squad turnovers.

“We only have 10 players remaining from our squad last season but we managed to sign Kerry Brown – who had been with us for the previous four years and has great ability - back from Derry just before the window closed on Saturday.

“A lot of players have moved on for various reasons and for us the way to respond to that is by bringing in more teenagers into the team, such as Naomi McLaughlin.

“She only turned 16 prior to Christmas and has already played back-to-back 90 minutes at this level and shown she is one of the brightest talents in the country.

“It is important for these girls to get that game-time and experience of what is required at this level.”

An opening day four-goal defeat at home to Cliftonville Ladies – which was scoreless after an hour – was followed by a comprehensive 5-1 victory at Lisburn Ladies last week.

Sion recorded a top four finish last season and McGinley believes that can be built on this time round: “Our aim is to finish in the top half of the table and replicate our finish from last season.

“We are always trying to improve and build on what we have done the previous year but with two more teams this campaign it adds that extra element that we need to keep pushing.

“There are probably three teams going for third and fourth place – Linfield have signed really well this summer and have a great vibe at the moment, while Crusaders have a great base and a new management.

“If you look at the players available to those two clubs, it shows you the challenge that we face but that is something we believe is in our capabilities.”

Last week’s win at Lisburn saw McGinley come up against his oldest friend in football, with Hayden Davies in charge of the newly-promoted club.

While McGinley was happy with the outcome of that match, there will be no shortage of twists and turns to come this season.

“Cliftonville were outstanding in that match – they played at a pace and intensity that I had not seen previously in this league,” the Sion boss added.

“It was so important for us to bounce back immediately after that, even though this was somewhat of a step into the unknown.

“Lisburn were really up for that match and put us under an early onslaught, but we survived that then grew into the game impressively and we took our opportunities well.

“Of course there was disappointment to concede so late on and not keep a clean sheet but there were plenty of positives to take from it.”