Linfield Ladies midfield star Mia Fitzsimmons insists the team’s top-half finish this campaign is a result of their growing experience – with a promise of more to come in the years ahead.

Having finished second-from-bottom in last season’s standings in a difficult campaign marked by long-term injuries and player departures, the young Blues team added experience this season to bolster their ranks.

Fitzsimmons, 20, has been a regular for the South Belfast club since their most recent league title in 2019 and was influential as the club secured a top half finish ahead of the Danske Bank Women’s Premiership split this campaign.

“We are still a young team this season but we have a deeper, more settled squad that is able to challenge on all fronts, she explained.

“We brought Megan Weatherall and Rachel McConnell from Cliftonville, Clare Timoney came back to the club, Eilish Ward arrived – players with more experience who helped the training and gave us fresh faces and more competition, pushing us on for places.

“In our win at Sion last month, it was Rachel who scored the opener and then Carla Devine – another new signing who replaced her as a substitute – got the second, so that is the difference from last season.”
Having secured a top four finish, Linfield now finish the season with trips to Cliftonville Ladies and Glentoran Women – results which will influence the destination of the title – alongside taking on Crusaders Strikers.

Fitzsimmons continued: “Finishing second from bottom was nowhere near good enough for Linfield, so this season was all about finishing in the top four and progressing quickly.

“We want to be playing against the best teams in the league every week because those are the games that make you better, and we worked really hard in training to achieve that. Those games are going to be a big challenge for us but we want to be challenging those teams and pushing for third.”

The most important result of Linfield’s league campaign was a 2-1 victory away at Sion Swifts Ladies last month, a result which took them clear of their closest challengers for fourth.

“That was always the game which was always the toughest fixture as they always have such a strong team,” added Fitzsimmons. “Even when we were winning titles, winning there was so difficult. fter losing at home to the Crues, we knew we had to go there and win – but we did it really convincingly with a strong performance.

“Maybe last campaign or earlier this season, we would have conceded another late goal and dropped points – that is something that we had struggled with, seeing wins out.

“That was the case in games at the start of the season against Crusaders and Sion, when late goals meant we dropped points in games we should have won.

“We needed to be more street-wise but the older players have really us with that.”

Still a university student, Fitzsimmons is establishing herself as not only one of the most experienced players at Linfield – with three full campaigns under her belt for the club.

When club captain Ashley Hutton has sat out matches this campaign, she has been given the armband for the team, explaining: “Each season that I’ve been at the club, I feel like I have improved – that has come with the trust from the coaches and playing so much over the years. It’s not just a technical aspect but also mentally too to have so much game-time, because you learn how to manage games and what is expected of you.

“It is at the stage now where teenagers in the team would be looking at me to see how we can manage the game and how we should approach it. To have been captain in games that Ashley Hutton doesn’t play has been an honour and helped with that too.”

Linfield Ladies resume their campaign with a trip to Solitude to play Cliftonville Ladies on 19 October.