Rebecca Creagh - The motivations to be a successful football player

Rebecca Creagh began her football experience with Templeogue United, spending the first ten years of her playing career with the Dublin 6 side, before in 2006 Creagh made the move to Raheny United who at the time were playing in the Dublin Women’s Soccer League.

Since her arrival Creagh has been an ever present in the Raheny side and with the introduction of the Women’s National League in 2011 the inspirational midfielder has missed fewer than six league games over a four year period.

When the 26 year old joined Raheny she was quick to establish herself within the Panda’s rank and in 2009 her leadership skills had shone through when she was appointed club captain in only her third season at the club, Apart from a brief spell at the start of the 2012/13 season when Creagh reliquenced the captaincy to Mary Waldron, however she regained the armband soon after.

The 2015 season saw Raheny relinquish their league crown, nontheless Creagh and her team mates ensured the season would finish on a positive note, when they defeated Peamount United to lift the Women’s National League Cup, a trophy that had eluded Creagh in previous years.

Last November the Panda’s skipper also climbed the steps of the Aviva Stadium to receive the Women’s FAI Cup for a third consecutive season, after they defeated UCD Waves.

Despite winning two trophies Creagh was still disappointed to see the league title slip from her sides grasp, but is fully aware that the downfalls which occurred this season will increase the appetite for success among the Raheny United squad for the coming season.

“We are disappointed as far as our standards go. It was testing at times and I think it was character building over all. We lost key players due to injury and having had no break in football the past three years, but to win two cups is still impressive.”

With Wexford Youths claiming this year’s WNL crown, Creagh explains the pressure is on the champions to perform on both domestic and European nights, while Raheny can concentrate on just the WNL.

“All the pressure is on Wexford now to perform in Champions League and the WNL, we have shown we can handle that, so we will sit back now, work hard in preseason and come back with a bigger bang than any other year.”

As Rebecca currently enjoys some time away from the football field, her attention is already focused on next season, while setting targets for herself, many people would be proud to have achieved what the Raheny girls have since the introduction of the WNL, Creagh is not content just yet as there is one target that has eluded her CV thus far.

“The treble is the only thing missing, we will just aim to do better than ever before, work hard from August to May and take every game as it comes. We want to be back in The Aviva in November for the FAI Cup Final, and lifting the Women’s National League and League Cup trophies in May 2016.”

Despite having such a successful club career and representing Ireland at underage level there is one gap that Creagh has yet to accomplish, representing her country at senior level she explains that when the opportunity came a few years back she did not show the management her true potential and unfortunately never received an illustrious first cap.

“When I did get selected I under performed and never showed what I can do. This summer it’s my aim to become better and stronger than before, with some new fitness plans. I'll keep doing my thing at Raheny and if the call comes I’m sure I would oblige, my mom and dad would kill me otherwise!”

When questioned on her favourite footballing moment of the season, Rebecca’s humbleness was extremely evident, instead of mentioning one of her team’s two success, she was quick to praise two other young soccer players who had returned from long injury layoffs.

“Most recently my favorite footballing moment was seeing Clare Shine along with Chloe Mustaki step back on the pitch after months out.”

2015 saw Creagh and her Raheny teammates gain huge experience when they qualified for the last 32 of the UEFA Women’s Champions League before crashing out against Bristol Academy, an experience that the Panda’s players with benefit hugely from.

“It was a huge learning curve, we learned a lot about each other as a squad, about our management and club as a whole. We got off to a great start out in Romania, it was something dreams are made of. To go out there in 30 degree heat at 3rd seed, with no one expecting us to get out of the group, then to go on and win the group undefeated was unbelievable.

“Getting drawn against Bristol then was totally different, we lost for the first time since November 2012 and we were disappointed as we expected to do better, but it was hard to compete with a team of their calibre, who train together all the time and have top class facilities.

“We took positives from a negative situation, which made us stronger as a team and we have kept in touch with some of the Bristol girls too which was nice. Overall we learned a lot which I think will stand to us in the future.”