Cliftonville's Claire Shaw (right) is eager to add to her medal haul this week
After breaking into the big time at the age of 29, Claire Shaw is in a hurry to make up for lost time.
With her first senior medal already in the bag and Thursday night’s Women’s Premiership League Cup Final against Sion Swifts Ladies offering up the first of three more opportunities to lift silverware this season, the Cliftonville Ladies striker is loving life after her move to Solitude.
It has been an unusual route to the top for Shaw, who played for north Belfast rivals Crusaders Strikers as a youth before football took a back seat.
What could be considered even more unusual is that, after making the move from St James’ Swifts to the Reds, she is now watching and learning from a player almost a decade her junior.
When that player is an international striker with experience at last summer’s Women’s Euro 2022 Finals who then went on to be the Women’s Premiership’s top goalscorer as she fired her team to their first League title, maybe it’s not so unusual after all.
Shaw always knew that pushing Caitlin McGuinness out of the Cliftonville team would be a major challenge, but her goalscoring contributions have forced the team’s management to find a way to get both of their goal getters into the line-up
“Caitlin McGuinness is a top striker and as long as I can assist the team as best I can, that’s all that matters really,” says Shaw.
“I am learning a lot from her, she is a goalscorer and that’s what she does best.
“Obviously roles have been reversed in terms of age and me learning from a young player.
“I am sitting watching her in training and in games and she’s on point, she’s very sharp and she reads the game very well.
“Anything that Caitlin
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