Chris Shields programme article
Posted : 2nd July 2022
Linfield’s midfield general, Chris Shields has been reflecting on a successful first season at Windsor Park in this exclusive ‘Look at Linfield’ interview as he looks back on a demanding season which brought the club a 56th Irish League title.
The Dubliner was a central presence in Dundalk’s imperial phase in the 2010s, winning five league titles in almost a decade at Oriel Park, but he says his latest success, in the blue of Linfield was just as sweet.
“Winning the title with Linfield last season meant just as much as any other league I’ve ever won, it’s a feeling you never get tired of. There’s a bit more pressure at Linfield to win the league than any other club I’ve been at. Going into the split in the league was a situation completely new to me. It was a three-horse race for a long time, and then a two-horse race right down to the wire. To pip your opponent on the last day was ecstasy for us, anguish for Cliftonville but a brilliant title race to be involved in.”
The 31-year-old has endeared himself to the Linfield faithful with excellent performances and at the end of the season Shields picked up countless Player of the Year trophies from Supporters’ Clubs, official Linfield awards and both the NI Football Writers’ and the Ulster Footballer of the Year awards, all of which meant a lot to the midfielder.
“Winning the league was an ultimate high and then to pick up so many individual awards was a nice way to end the season for me personally. I appreciate every award that I’ve got, particularly the Players’ Player of the Year award because it means your peers appreciate your contribution.
“It’s half the battle if the fans take to you, but you know they’ll take to you if you give everything out on the pitch, which I do. If you play for the shirt, the Linfield fans will stick by you.
“Something I wanted to do when I moved up here last year was to make my mark on the league. I’ve seen players come up from the League of Ireland and half do it, but I wanted to give it everything and fully commit to the club to be successful. Fortunately, I was entering a great dressing room and that made things easier for me.”
What made Chris’ performances all the more impressive was the fact he effectively played two seasons rolled into one, having signed from Dundalk who were midway through their season in June last year. Aside from a five-week injury lay-off in January to February, Shields was a regular and a key player last season, scoring 7 goals but having a much bigger all-round impact in his 40 appearances.
“I was happy that my body largely held up, apart from the injury in January. I don’t think you could count that spell as a rest but I think I made 60 odd games last season all in. Some people might say, for a man my age to play that many games and to have a hand in winning the league isn’t bad going. I missed the County Antrim Shield final which was disappointing and we didn’t have the greatest of cup runs but the league is your bread and butter. Still, knowing the standards this club sets, we’ll want to do better in the cups this coming season.
“The league has been everything that I expected, and more! I didn’t know what I was coming into. Obviously, I’d spoken to the manager but I didn’t know the changing room all that well, apart from Jamie Mulgrew who I knew briefly from bumping into him in Bangor where we both live. Coming in to a new changing room can be a nervous experience but what a changing room to go into. There are also great people within the club who make sure you’re well looked after.”
In closing, we asked the defensive midfielder if Linfield can follow in the footsteps of his two Dundalk teams by making the group stages of a European competition, whether that be this year or sometime in the not-too-distant future.
“Why not? Having played in the Europa League group stages twice with Dundalk, it really whets your appetite. You always want more. To get there in 2016 was surreal but I never thought it would happen again, so to do it again in 2020, I loved every minute of it. There is a possibility now with three competitions. Champions League is a massive ask for us but if you can get through that First Round, it significantly improves your chances of getting to the group stages of the Europa League or Conference League.
“Obviously, we’ve been drawn against TNS which will be tough but we’ve got to believe we can do it. Hopefully, we can get a good result over there to bring back to Windsor and then call on our 12th man at Windsor to help us win the tie. We had a great training camp in Marbella last week and are feeling good ahead of the new season. These friendlies against Newtown and St. Mirren will give everyone an opportunity to build up the match minutes after the opener against Qatar who we played out in Spain on Tuesday.”
Congratulations to Chris on his Linfield player of the year awards and on being chosen as both NI Football Awards and Ulster Footballer of the Year and hopefully, he can make a similar impact on the league scene in his second season in the Linfield team.