CLARE Shine received a standing ovation at Petershill Park after being substituted 14 minutes from time in Glasgow City's 2-0 win over Hearts. It was her final match for the club after announcing her retiral from football on Saturday.
“It was emotional – I don't think I have a tear left inside me,” the 27-year-old Republic of Ireland striker admitted. “It wasn't an easy decision to retire, but it's something I've been thinking about for quite some time now.”
Shine, who admitted to addiction and mental health issues in her recently published book, failed to add to her 70 goals for the club but came very close on four occasions, including an attempt from the edge of the box which rebounded back off the bar. Jenna Clark, with a powerful header from a Hayley Lauder cross, and Lauren Davidson got the City goals.
“I'm in a good place at the moment,” Shine said. “I'm sober, I'm happy and it's just the emotional and physical aspects to football that I struggle with, especially professional football.
“It's taking its toll and I need to put my happiness and wellbeing first. I love football, and I love my team-mates and the club, but I struggle with that balance between the highs and the lows.”
Despite six wins from six, City remain third behind leaders Rangers and second placed Celtic on goal difference. Rangers, who travel to Portugal tomorrow for the second leg of their second round Champions League tie, beat Motherwell 4-0 at Broadwood, while Celtic were 3-0 winners over Aberdeen at Balmoral Stadium.
Partick Thistle got their first win of the season with an 8-1 demolition of bottom club Glasgow Women. Dundee United beat Hamilton Accies 3-2, and in the other SWPL game Spartans and Hibernian drew 2-2 at Ainslie Park.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel