Sion need to be at their brilliant best says Crompton

SION Swifts Ladies are going to have to be at their brilliant best if they are to capture the Electric Ireland Women’s Challenge Cup for only the second time in the club’s history on Saturday evening.

That’s the opinion of experienced midfielder Kelly Crompton ahead of the eagerly-anticipated showdown with the highly-fancied Glentoran at The National Stadium (Kick-off 5.30pm). The Glens are red-hot favourites to defend the prestigious trophy which they clinched for the ninth time last season, however, it’s not beyond the realms of possibilty that Sion could spring a major surprise.

The bookies would do well to remember that back in the summer Swifts defeated Cliftonville 2-0 – albeit the Reds were without their Northern Ireland players – to clinch the League Cup, and back in May the north Tyrone outfit also drew 1-1 with the defending league champions.

Tony Blake’s maturing young side certainly have the capability to cause an upset, however to achieve that, Crompton insists her and her team-mates will have to bring their A game to the party. “One hundred per cent, Glentoran are on a great run of form,” said the midfielder.

“But saying that, a final is a final. A final is anyone’s game, it’s about who wants it more on the day.

“I sometimes think we are more up for the cups. Maybe the likes of Glentoran expect to win cups and maybe that works for them; it’s not that big a deal to them.

“But the flip side of that is maybe we’ll want it that bit more. We have been trying to drum that into the players; that if you want it enough you’ll end up getting it.

“We showed that in the semi-final, we were able to come back from 2-0 down. It’s never over until the final whistle and we know that in any game we have the ability to come back. That fight back will have done us no harm at all.

“Matches between Glentoran and ourselves have always been close, it’s a really good rivalry and I think both teams enjoy playing against each other.

“It’s going to be tough but as Ryan (Mullen, coach) has reminded us, if we won on Saturday evening we will be the most successful Sion team in history. We have won the Foyle Cup and the League Cup this season but everyone knows that the Irish Cup is the big one.”

Kelly and skipper Tazmin McCarter are the only two players remaining from the team that captured the Irish Cup for the one and only time back in 2017.

She describes that memorable occasion when Sion defeated Newry City 2-0 as “the best night of my football career from start to finish by a country mile.”

“It was the biggest thing that we had ever done as a club and every single person who was on that team still talks about it till this day,” she continued. “It was such a big occasion with Kendra (McMullan) scoring the two goals; it’s going to be hard to top. Obviously we’ll try and do that on Saturday.”

The experience from that night is also something she is keen to share with the younger members of the team.

“We never got ahead of ourselves and never talked about the final until we won the semi. Taz and I have been talking to the younger girls and telling them not to let the occasion get to them because it’s still only a game of football.

“We have been trying not to big it up for them because that will happen on the day anyway. So we have been trying to keep them calm and reminding them that, if we were able to win it so can they.”