Bailie ready for 30th and final season at Glentoran

"I didn't even know there was a Northern Ireland team, I never went into football thinking I want to play for Northern Ireland, I just wanted to play football. You got the call-up and it was just surreal. It was hampered a little by work-life balance, you had to get it off work [for games] but I can't believe I got 56 [caps]."

Despite not starting every game for Glentoran, who are now managed by her former teammate Kim Turner, Bailie remains the consummate professional and scored highly in the club's pre-season running and strength testing.

In order to continue playing at the highest level well into her 40s, Bailie knows the importance of looking after herself off the pitch and prioritising good sleep and nutrition for recovery.

"I'm better at it now than I ever was because the game has developed. I would have went out on a Saturday night and showed up for training on Sunday morning!" she joked.

"When you're young it didn't phase you, now, I'm quite disciplined, I'll be in bed for 10pm and get my sleep, I'll eat right as much as possible and when we get programmes, I'll go to the gym and do them or I wouldn't be sitting here.

"When you're younger you can get away with cheating it a little bit but when you're older you can't."

'Players should feel so lucky because they're being given all the tools'

Bailie has witnessed the rapid growth of women's football in recent years and said it is in a markedly different place to when she started playing in the mid 1990s.

"When I look back, for quite a while, we were begging for pitches, we were lucky if a referee turned up, if they didn't your coaches did a half each and we were playing 40 minutes a half," she explained.

"Over time, bit by bit, that's developed, now we have analysis, nutrition, gym programmes and strength and conditioning coaches.

"Now players should feel so lucky because they're being given all the tools. It's amazing the game has grown as it has."

Bailie was the first woman inducted into the Glentoran Hall of Fame in 2025 and while not sure what she will do once she eventually hangs up the boots, she knows she will want to stay involved with the club and inspire the next generation.

"I don't know what happens next, I have to figure out how to do life because you're so conditioned in football.

"I will have to do something with the club, people ask me but I just don't know what that is yet, 100% I'll be about, but as a player, you have to know when to stop chasing the 18-year-olds around the pitch!"