There was a special milestone moment for St Johnstone WFC’s Niamh Irvine at the end of the recently-finished season.
Niamh made her 200th appearance for the club in the 2-1 victory against East Fife at McDiarmid Park.
It was a result that ensured Saints’ ScottishPower Women’s Premier League 2 safety.
Reflecting on reaching 200 games, Niamh said: “I can’t believe it’s 200 to be honest. It should be a lot more if I didn’t get injured so often!
“It’s a great achievement for me, I really didn’t expect to hit this many when I first signed over a decade ago. I’m proud to have played for this club so many times and I’m excited to see that number go up.”
Niamh, who works for Saints in the Community, first joined the club in 2015 and is proudly reflecting on a more than a decade of service.
She said: “I don’t think I ever looked too far ahead to be honest. I just wanted to find somewhere to enjoy my football and develop and get better and I’ve definitely done that over the last decade.
“I would say I never imagined St Johnstone to play such a big part in my life, both in football and in my work life. And not just on the field, but off it too, being part of the Saints in the Community team.”
Saints needed a win against East Fife on the final day of the season to jump above them and avoid the relegation play-off. Ellie MacIver’s 93rd minute goal secured the required three points and clinched the 2-1 win.
Niamh said: “We made it hard for ourselves going into the last few games. It ended up coming down to that last game where a draw wasn’t enough.
“We knew how good East Fife can be. They are an aggressive team and have good players. We did a lot of preparation and the girls knew what we were fighting for.
“Everyone turned up on the day and we played some of the best football we had played all season. We did leave it until the last minute, but we got the win in the end.
“The whole season probably didn’t go how we wanted it to. We battled through with a lot of injures. We kept fighting and put in performances that we needed to.”
Niamh added: “We’ll be raring to go for next season and will be looking to push ourselves up the table.”
