Title winner Shannon Dunne delighted with Derry City return

And for City’s new signing, Shannon Dunne, who will be facing her former club in Sunday’s opener, she’s excited about returning to her home town club.

"Derry was my club for nearly 14 years before I moved to Glentoran, so it means a lot to go back,” she insisted, "Obviously playing for your home town club is great.

"It's just about trying to improve and getting us up to the standard that it needs to be at because in my opinion Derry City should be on the same par as your Glentorans, your Linfields because it's a big name and a big club, so we need to get it up there but it will take time.”

The former City captain won the Premiership title with Glentoran Women, and feels there is huge potential for the Candy Stripes to grow. However, she acknowledged it will take time to get the club challenging for the top honours.

"We're not going into the league campaign being too naive to be honest. We're trying to be realistic of where we'll finish and where we want to push ourselves to go,” she added.

"I'm just new back this year obviously and what I've seen so far is that we've a pretty young team. It's completely new; new players and new staff, so everything is really about building foundations this year, getting that right before we can push on. However, with that being said, I think that we can finish in the top half of the bottom teams, that's a realistic goal.

"Derry have been up and around the Premiership for a number of years and realistically that's where they need to be. The new teams coming up, we're more than capable of beating them and taking points off them and causing an upset.

"The potential for the Women's team is massive, particularly when you look at the support which went to the FAI Cup final. If we could tap into a fraction of that to come to our matches it would be great.

"Thankfully the club is supporting us a bit more which is great, but I feel it just needs to be pushed on in order for us to go to the next level. If we have everybody working in the same direction we can only go up and compete with the likes of Linfield, Glentoran and all the top teams, but it will take time."

The midfielder admits that watching the club from afar over recent years has disappointed her, especially as the club have changed managers on a regular basis, but she believes Paul Dixon’s appointment is a good one.

"To be honest it has been a disaster," she stated. “Because there were times when Derry were doing well over a short period of time and I was thinking, 'God that Derry team has actually changed' and I'm secretly rooting for them, and then there were other times when I was thinking 'Oh my god' but it doesn't help if your manager is chopping and changing.

"To be honest I wouldn't have entertained the thought of coming back this season if it wasn't for who's in now so, look, things are definitely starting to change but Rome wasn't built in a day, it's going to take time.”

Another promising aspect for both Derry and the entire Women’s Premiership is that a host of players are signing professional contracts. Dunne believes over the short term it may cause a bit of friction in changing rooms but long term it can only be good for the game throughout the country.

"I feel that Derry have been smart in terms giving their young signings - Clarah Quigg, Ellie Redden and Cate Toland – on professional contracts, because it keeps them at the club for a long period of time and it means they can't just go next season because maybe we don't meet the goals that we've set out and they might think to leave to go to other clubs, so I feel it's good in that sense,” admitted the 28-year-old.

"Maybe in a negative way it might impact the dressing room in terms of, 'Oh she's got a contract and she didn't', but it's something every club is going to have to deal with and we'll just do the same."