Caithness Ladies to work twice as hard to build on Highlands and Islands League development
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Caithness Ladies are looking to work twice as hard to build on the success of 2023.
The new SWF Highlands and Islands League season begins this Sunday when Caithness will be hosting Ross and Cromarty at Naver in Thurso with a 1pm kick-off.
They will be hoping to continue their upward trajectory over recent years, with a second-bottom finish in the 2022 season being turned around spectacularly to finish third in the 2023 standings as well as reaching the League Cup final.
Caithness are determined not to slide backwards in 2024, with key player Carly Erridge hoping to keep the club moving in the right direction.
"I think we just really want to build on the progress we've made last year," she said.
"We had a great season and made the cup final, and finished third in the league, so I think last year we went in as underdogs.
"I don't think anyone expected us to do as well as we did. It was the first time in the history of the club that we made a cup final, and we were absolutely buzzing to be there – hopefully we can take that a step further this year.
"The momentum we built up from doing so well last year, and just the popularity of women's football being on the up anyway, we have to keep that going and keep everybody keen.
"We'll train twice as hard to make sure that we've got numbers. I think everyone has really bought into what we're trying to do here.
"This year we'll be looking to build on the progress we made last year and hopefully it will be another successful season for us."
Women's football in general has grown exponentially in recent years.
Numbers – both in the Caithness senior team and in junior football around the area – have increased significantly, undoubtedly playing a part in the club's improvement.
That is another area where Erridge is keen to see the momentum continue.
"In previous years, we've sometimes not had enough players to have any substitutes to choose from," she explained. "We'd be struggling to get a starting eleven, but last year we were at the stage where we had to turn people away from our match-day squad.
"Obviously that's never a nice thing to have to do, but at the same time it's really great for the growth of the club to have enough players to have to do that.
"The next step is definitely looking at getting into younger age groups.
"East End FC started up junior girls' training just before Christmas, so we'll be looking to help them out.
"I think they had 50-odd girls turning up to that, so the next step is getting the younger age groups and not just a senior ladies' team."
See players from across the Highlands and Islands League explain why you should support the division in 2024 below
