Sion hoping to return to winning ways against Crues

SION Swifts Ladies will be hoping to return to winning ways when they host Crusaders at Melvin this evening.

Last weekend Tony McGinley’s team suffered their second successive defeat when going down 4-0 to leaders and defending champions Cliftonville at Solitude.

Sion won their opening three games of the season – albeit against lesser opposition – but back-to-back defeats to the Reds and the Glens leaves the north Tyrone side fifth in the table just below the Crues.

Crusaders have won four of their opening five games and will again present a formidable challenge for Swifts. Traditionally games between the sides have been hard fought affairs and Friday night is expected to be no different.

McGinley’s team will want to start better than they did against Cliftonville, who have opened their season in stunning fashion by scoring 35 goals in their opening five matches without conceding.

In fact, the game against the table-toppers was over as a contest after just 20 minutes as the home side raced into a 3-0 lead.

The Reds made a super fast start, and just seconds after Kirsty McGuinness had blazed an effort over the crossbar, her sister Caitlin opened the scoring on three minutes. The Northern Ireland international latched onto a through ball, beat the goalkeeper and slotted into an empty net. She then doubled her and the Reds’ tally on nine minutes as she tucked home after connecting with a Kirsty McGuinness’ cross.

Danielle Maxwell added a third for the hosts in the 20th minute, when Caitlin McGuinness squared the ball to her in the box after the striker had rounded the goalkeeper.

The champions continued to press for more goals in the second half, and were rewarded on 74 minutes when captain Marissa Callaghan reacted quickest to finish after Abbie Magee’s shot had come back off the post.

Caitlin McGuinness missed a fine opportunity to seal her hat-trick when screwing a shot wide late on as the Reds eased to their fifth straight victory.