ARDS Ladies Hockey head coach Adam Louden has hailed the ‘resilience’ of his team after the Oranges sealed promotion back to the top flight of the women’s game in Ireland.
Having seen off Avoca in the EYHL Division 2 quarter-final at Londonderry Park, Ards travelled south to Cork knowing a win in the semi-finals of the competition against Cork Harlequins would clinch a return to EYHL1.
The in-form Rachel Houston gave Ards the lead after 19 minutes before scoring the winner on 34 after Michelle Barry had equalised for Harlequins. That not only confirmed promotion for Ards, but also set up a title shot with University College Cork 24 hours later, where goals in each half from defender Emma Reid proved decisive and exactly 12 months on from being relegated from Division 1, Ards were back in the big time.
“It hasn’t been an easy season for a number of reasons,” reflected Louden.
“We lost key players at the tail end of last year to go and play in the top league and we were affected with a number of injuries to key players too, which made it hard to get any kind of momentum going.
“But the girls were unbelievable at the weekend,” he added. “Their resilience and discipline was fantastic, which coupled with bravery on the ball was enough to get us over the line.
“They’ve always been a resilient bunch, so I don’t think it’s anything new from this year and hopefully it’ll stand us in good stead going forward.”
Louden reserved special praise for Rachel Houston, whose goals have been pivotal in ensuring Ards’ absence from EYHL1 was limited to just the one season.
“Scoring goals is one of the hardest things to do and Rachel has been absolutely smashing them in,” he said.
“She was the third top goalscorer in Ulster and I’d be really interested to know where she finished in terms of across the country as a whole, because she must be right up there.
“All of the players weighed in with goals throughout the season, though. Emma Reid at centre-back scored twice in the final for example, so it really has been a team effort.
“The main goal for this year was always [to get back to] EY1,” continued the head coach. “Ards is a big club and they need to be playing in big club competitions. For the next couple of years it’s about trying to sustain ourselves at that level.
“I think we have to be realistic about it, the goal has to be consistently getting in a position where we aren’t facing relegation before we can start to push on for titles.”
Now that they are back at the top table, Louden is hopeful of being able to further bolster an already strong playing panel.
“I would hope that promotion back to EY1 will see some players potentially return to the club and others maybe join us.
“We already have a really good depth of talent and this year, we’ve managed to bring some good players through with Mia Allman, Maddie Leathem, Georgia Thornton and Rebecca Beggs all making their debuts and there is Alyssa Boyd who is still a schoolgirl and has played a lot.
“Signing one or two new players would be great, but Ards is a club that has always brought players through so we’ll build on the talent that’s already here at the club.”