Kelly excited to be back on Euro stage with Peamount
By Daire Walsh
PEAMOUNT United’s Lauren Kelly has admitted the lure of European football was one of the factors behind her recent return to the club.
A product of the Peamount underage system, the Kildare woman bagged a brace of goals to propel Wexford Youths towards victory over the Newcastle outfit in the 2019 FAI Cup final.
Now back for a second spell at PRL Park – she started the 3-0 league win over Galway WFC last weekend – Kelly is hoping to be in the mix for next Wednesday’s Champions League Tournament 9 semi-final encounter with Spartak Subotica in the Netherlands.
“I played Champions League two years ago for Wexford,” she recalled. “I had a taste of it and you want to get it again. It was obviously an attraction. I wouldn’t say it was the main pull or anything, but it does help. It does entice you a bit.
“It’s exciting and something to look forward to. Especially after the last few months and even last season.
“It’s good to get some football in, get to travel and compete in Europe. It’s better than last year’s set-up. There was the one game last year. This year we’ve got a couple of games to play, so it’s good.”
Regardless of how their showdown with Subotica transpires at the Sportcampus Diekman in Enschede, Peamount will be back in action at the same venue three days later.
The outcome on Wednesday will determine whether they face the winner of the game between host club Twente and Tbilisi Nike in the tournament final or the loser of that tie in a third place play-off.
Kelly acknowledged the Peamount squad will need to do their research on Subotica, but won’t be overly fixated on how the Serbians set up on the day.
“I think you have to be prepared for it and obviously we need to know a bit about them, but, at the same time, not get too soaked up into focusing on them.
“That’s the main difference for me from moving to Peamount. In my other clubs, we focused a lot on other teams and what other teams do.
“Whereas in Peamount the team isn’t mentioned until a Saturday morning. We focus on ourselves and what we can do. You’re only in control of yourself, you can’t control them. We’ll focus on ourselves, but at the same time we’ll obviously look at them and see what we can do to get by them.”