Ladies lose out in League Cup!!!!

The Ladies started their season with a trip West to face last year’s double champions Glasgow City

This Premier League Cup 1st round tie was incidentally, a repeat of last year’s final.

Debuts were given to close season signings Debbie McWhinnie and Emma McCulley, while their other new signing Jenna Ross was sitting out the final game of a suspension carried over from last year

The fiery playing surface was not ideal for playing attractive, passing football, but both teams tried to when possible in an otherwise perfect day for a game.

City dominated the early exchanges, forcing a number of corners in the opening period of the game.  A combination of the woodwork, good goalkeeping by Shannon Lynn and resolute defending meant that the score was still level when the ladies conjured up their first real chance of the game.  In 28 minutes, a corner landed in the City penalty area and Laura Kennedy showed good reactions to prod the ball goalwards.  A City defender managed to block it just short of the line and no one could capitalise on the resultant loose ball.

The Ladies seemed to gain some confidence from this and the game went from end to end for the remainder of the half.  City attacked predominantly through the middle, but Frankie Brown and Rebecca Zoltie put up a formidable shield in front of their defence, while Hibernian looked to get some attacking joy down the flanks trying to utilise the attacking instincts of full backs Kirsty McBride and McCulley.  Another chance presented itself just before the interval when centre back Suzy Robertson tried to hook home from a corner, but it agonisingly went inches wide.

HT 0-0

The second half started off in similar fashion to the first, with the team dominating the early proceedings, hitting the woodwork once more and Hibernian looking to hit them on the break and build attacks when they could.

The introduction of 15 year old Claire Emslie on the hour mark, for Joelle Murray gave the Ladies a new dimension and the youngsters pace caused problems for City down the left hand side.  On two occasions, she got in behind Campbell, the City right back, but her cross into the box was met with limited numbers

Lisa Robertson was then introduced for McCulley moments later and a slight re-shuffle added new grit and determination to the midfield.

The game was on a knife edge as both teams looked for the crucial first goal and it wasn’t until the 78th minute that the deadlock was broken.  Jane Ross broke through the heart of the Hibernian defence and as Suzy Robertson went shoulder to shoulder with her, the referee adjudged that there was a hand used to impede the City forward and awarded a dubious penalty.  Leeanne Ross made no mistake despite diving the correct way.

A double change to the Hibs side immediately followed, introducing Ellen Pia and Hayley Cunningham for Zoltie and Kennedy, and the resultant change of shape tried to bring a more attacking impetus for the remainder of the game.  Despite putting City on the back foot for a lot of the closing period, no clear cut chances were created and in the final minutes Katharina Linder beat the offside trap and cracked home a stunning 20 yard drive past the despairing Lynn to seal the win for City

Coach Willie Kirk commented after the game “that was a very tough test for our first game of the new campaign, but we wouldn’t have wished for anything else.  City are a formidable side, and have raised the bar for all teams in Scotland. It is up to us, and the other clubs to raise our own standards and I believe that we are doing that.  There is a gap between us just now, but we are closing it.  We face them in the league in two months time and I would like to see that gap closed further by then. 

I was very pleased with our performance and we showed a fantastic work ethic and looked like ‘a team’ in the way that we worked for each other.  We will work on one or two things before our opening league game next week away to Boroughmuir, but I am more than happy with the progress that we are making and what I am seeing in training each week.

I felt that by trying to provide more of an attacking threat to City may have been at the expense of our very good defensive shape and it is sometimes a hard balance to achieve.

There were excellent performances all over the park today, but I felt that 16 year old Rebecca Zoltie was a real influence in the middle of the park and 15 year old Claire Emslie gave us a spark when coming on for the final half hour.  Debbie McWhinnie can be pleased with her debut and looked a danger at times, but our captain Rhonda Jones was absolutely immense today at the heart of our defence.

The girls are now looking forward to taking this performace into our next game.

Back to News Listing