A cauldron of noise

I have to say, the Toumba Stadium and the PAOK fans were something else to behold last Thursday night.

It was easily one of the best atmospheres I have experienced in all my years (and there have been a fair few of them) as a football fan.

When we got to the ground on Wednesday for the pre-match press conference and training session I have to admit I loved the fervent football passion that just exuded from the place. It was intimidating, intentionally so, and I have to say I loved that.

The tunnel area was brilliant. Better than White Hart Lane.

The bottom half of the walls were tiled alternately in white and black, the PAOK colours and the top half of the walls were a litany of murals wholly representative of the tradition, past players and passionate fans of the club.

It was excellent, intimidating but you couldn’t help but feel a fire of passion in your belly as you walked along the corridors. When you came down from the dressing-rooms to the tunnel area you walked down some steps, PAOK crests either side of you – another impressive black and white mural of their incredible fans before you walked up the next set of steps and into the arena....which was just a cauldron of noise.

Their fans bounce and chant, in totally synchronised unison and it’s brilliant to experience. You feel like you’re in a total football melting pot and the flares and the bangers do nothing only intensify the experience.

It must have been awesome for the players to be standing in that tunnel waiting to come out in those final few moments before kick-off. I was jealous.com!!

They are the moments that you just don’t get as a female football player or coach even.

The crowds are never that big; they’re never that intimidating and just by being born female you automatically lose out on the chance. Not that I’d want it any other way, I quite like being female but every now and then, you just get that pang of loving to know just what it’s really like to walk out into an arena like that and to just play in it.

There’s a part of me that feels that sense of regret now too that the new (and long overdue) Bus Éireann National Women’s League is almost upon us.

I missed the official launch last Thursday in the Aviva Stadium due to being in Greece for the Shamrock Rovers game but I am really looking forward to the experience of national league football for women in Ireland albeit it as an assistant manager/coach. (Secretly would have loved the opportunity to play in a league like this in this country).

I’ll be the number two at Shamrock Rovers women’s team – assisting manager John Walsh, head coach Dave Dunne and goalkeeper coach, Dave Bourke.

Our first game of the season will be a really tough one! Raheny, at home in the Tallaght Stadium on Sunday, November 13^th with a 2 o’clock kick-off.

I can’t wait!

We’ve been working hard at Rovers because unlike the other clubs, we’ve had to assemble our squad from scratch with open training sessions for four weeks until eventually, last Monday, we had finally formed our settled squad for the season and had our first Shamrock Rovers women’s team meeting!

Nothing better at the club than a few female faces to brighten the place up! (No disrespect lads!)

It’s been a brilliant learning curve for everyone involved so far and while I know that will continue for our first season together, we’ll still be hoping to give a good account of ourselves during our first season.

There’s no doubt that Peamount United will be out and out favourites to win the league, particularly after their brilliant travails in the Champions League this season – they’ve really set the benchmark for women’s football in this country – and they possess tremendous quality in their squad. No doubt their second eleven would start in most other teams’ first eleven but that’s the way it should be.

It needs to be like that in order for women’s football in this country to develop.

Raheny too will be a serious entity.

They’re at the top echelons of women’s football in this country for some time now and have a squad littered with internationals and top quality players.

And having lived in Cork, and actually trained with the Cork women’s squad (as a player) last season, I know how strong Dave Bell’s side will be. Dave is a long time in the women’s game with plenty of experience in England, and while his squad may be a largely young outfit, they are a seriously talented panel.

You’ll find the same can be said of Wexford Youths and Castlebar Celtic because all teams have attracted the cream of the talent in their regions and that is why this will be a very competitive league.

Each team will play against each other three times during the league season with the winners of the league crown getting the additional prize of Champions League football next season. Be under no illusions as to how competitive this league will be, how seriously it will be taken and how high the standard of football will be.

There won’t be an inch given because the stakes are high.

This is the best development in football in this country in a long, long time and I’m looking forward to being a part of it!

Date for your diary: Sunday 13^th November 2011 – 2pm, get to one of the games!