Sport / Hard work and group hugs: How Shetland’s women’s team achieved first Island Games win
UNFORGIVING heat, the “hardest group out there” and not a hope in hell.
That was how some saw the task before Shetland women’s footballers at the Island Games, with a gruelling schedule of three games in three days against some of the top sides in the competition.
Add to that 20 degree temperatures, blow-up beds for mattresses and a first games experience for the vast majority of the squad, and you have the makings of what many thought would be a tough week for the squad.
But Shetland’s women returned triumphant from Orkney after securing their first ever win at the Island Games, finishing the tournament in seventh place.
A hard-fought 2-2 draw with Isle of Wight kickstarted their competition – after a 20-year exodus from the games – before a 2-1 win over Hitra in their final match elicited wild celebrations from the blues.
Freya Leslie was one of Shetland’s stars of the tournament, scoring a superb free-kick to put them ahead against Isle of Wight in that opening game. She thinks the team silenced a lot of doubters with their performances in Orkney.
“We had the hardest group out there, so I think everyone had kind of written us off,” she told Shetland News.
“So that first game, to almost win, I don’t think anyone was expecting us to perform at such a high level.
“I think a lot of people thought that we had not played that many games beforehand, just a few cup games, which was kind of true.
“But I think we just ignored everyone. We trusted each other and trusted what the coaches had told us.”
Kevin Main is one of those coaches, having been involved with the team for the past nine months.
He and Carrie Morrison, Niall Bristow and Adam Priest had readied the squad physically for the tournament, but said they “weren’t sure how mentally prepared they were”.
“We had that gruelling schedule of games, and the heat that Orkney gave us, so we were maybe fearing the worst,” Main admitted.
“We weren’t sure how big of a jump in standard it was going to be.
“It was also the first test of competitive football at the Island Games for a lot of them, so it was a bit daunting.”
Tough draw
Shetland were drawn in a group against Isle of Wight, Jersey and 2023 gold medallists Bermuda – who won that competition without conceding a single goal.
All signs pointed to it being a difficult return for the women’s team, and those fears were exacerbated when Isle of Wight went 1-0 up in the first 15 minutes.
But Shetland rallied quickly, captain Rhea Nicolson dragging them level just before half-time before Leslie’s strike from the edge of the box put the blues 2-1 in front.
Although Isle of Wight would equalise, an opening draw at the tournament was a hugely impressive return to the Island Games for the women’s team.
Main said there were “some big performances in that first game” to earn a battling point, while Leslie said she and her team were “just on a high” after their thrilling opening draw – not least after her stunning free-kick goal.
“I knew that I wanted to be on the scoresheet again before the game,” she said.
“I don’t think I’ll ever forget that moment. It was really special, we all just went into a big group hug to celebrate, which showed just how much we all support each other.”
The set-piece specialist almost went one better in the last minute, rattling the crossbar from even further out – which would have won the game for Shetland.
Leslie had no idea when she struck the bar that there was so little time left.
“If I had known it was the last minute I probably would have been more vexed,” she said.
“But then if I had known it was the last minute my free-kick probably would have been way off!”
In the next two games came 2-0 defeats to Jersey and Bermuda, with an extremely disciplined defensive display against the latter meaning Shetland finished third in the group, earning them a seventh/eighth play-off match.
Tricky schedule
Main said they knew the competition was going to get “tougher as the week went on”, so the final match against top seeds Bermuda was a worry for the young Shetland side.
“We thought we would start picking up an injury or two before meeting Bermuda, and they were the main concern because they were international standard,” he told Shetland News.
“The games schedule was like nothing they [Shetland] have ever experienced before, so we didn’t know how we can prepare for it.
“We tried to cram in as many sessions as we could, and played under-16 boys’ sides before the games, but nothing can really replicate that sense of occasion.
“Bermuda clearly had a lot of quality resources to pull from. We hoped they might rest players but they came with a very strong 11 against us.
“Some of our players were really struggling with the levels of fitness and stamina, but we dug ourselves deep and pulled out an incredible performance against them.”
To put Shetland’s 2-0 defeat to Bermuda into perspective, Main said that drawing 0-0 “would have been like a World Cup to us”.
“We knew we had to try keep the score down,” he admitted, “because we wanted to have the chance to play that fourth game on Thursday.
“They could easily have wilted, but they didn’t. We were super chuffed to see all of them pull through with aplomb.”
Coming face-to-face with the quality and strength of Bermuda’s players was an eye-opener for some of the squad, Main said.Leslie agreed that it was a “massive step up” in quality from the opponents Shetland normally face.
“We’ve not had a lot of practice against women, so it was tough.
“But it’s great to come up against those kind of teams, and to compete against them.”
In between games, Shetland’s women’s team were staying at the Papdale Primary School, with blow-up beds their home comforts for the week.
Add to that the un-Orkney like stifling heat, and you would think that it would have been a less-than comfortable experience for the squad.
But with a host of other islands also sharing the school space, Main and Leslie said they came to love their multicultural campus.
“It was the kind of thing that would get a low score on TripAdvisor,” Main laughed.
“We were saying hi to people from Isle of Wight, Bermuda and Hitra every morning though.
“We felt part of this small sporting community, pulled together from all over the world.”
Leslie said her and her team-mates had been “treated as professional footballers for a week” – an experience they savoured.
Hitra triumph
Shetland’s final match of the competition was their placing play-off against the Norwegian island of Hitra, their fourth game in just five days.
Main said before the tournament their aim was simply to make it to a play-off – but they reset that target when they reached the Hitra game.
“The women’s team had never won a game at the Island Games, so we gave them that task,” he said.
That was “a lot to ask”, Main admitted, after such a draining schedule in the summer sun.
But Leslie said she and her team-mates wanted to grasp their chance to make history against Hitra.
“We knew going into the Hitra game it was going to be a lot closer,” she said.
“We thought we would be able to play our own game, and be a lot more attacking than we had been in the group stages.
“Hitra made it very difficult for us, they were such a physical and solid team.”
Hitra did make it difficult for Shetland, but goals from captain Nicolson again and birthday girl Josie Mitchell earned the blues a history-making 2-1 victory.
Leslie said she felt the result was the team’s hard-earned reward for days, weeks and months of graft both at the games and leading up to it.
“I think we deserved it for all the hard work we had put in,” she said.
“It was really nice to finish on a high and get that win.”
Main agreed, saying that the team had played “excellently well” to snatch victory.
“What an achievement that is,” he said.
“There was an incredible performance from captain Rhea Nicolson, and Josie Mitchell scoring the winner on her birthday is absolute storybook stuff.
“They all gave absolutely every ounce of energy through the week, so the celebrations were well deserved.”
Shetland’s attentions will now turn to their Highlands and Islands League Cup semi-final next month, before the annual inter-county fixture at the end of August.
Further in the horizon is the next Island Games, set to be hosted by Faroe Islands in 2027, and Main said that would be a “fantastic place to go and play football”.
“We’re now thinking, can we get there, can we compete and can we do even better than we have done?” He added.
And Leslie is confident that they can do just that.
“We’ve been playing against the best of the best,” she said. “We’re always looking to keep improving.”
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