Big win plus huge title boost for Celtic as Glasgow City lose again

When the final whistle went at Rugby Park in Sunday in the early kick-off, attention for some in the Celtic support turned to the Celtic FC Women’s match later in the day away to runaway league leaders, Glasgow City. They had established an EIGHT points lead over Celtic in Celtic place, with the current Champions theRangers one point behind the Hoops in third place.

A split was introduced to the SWPL1 this season for the first time and unlike in the men’s game the teams in the top six place have to each other home and away.

Going into the split Celtic opened with an extremely tough away match against theRangers and a last minute of stoppage time equaliser by Caitlin Hayes gave Celtic a point and prevented them leapfrogging Celtic into second spot. Glasgow City won their match to extend their lead at the top of the table and those results meant that Celtic now needed a favour from elsewhere if they were to overtake City.

That’s the way the table remained until Sunday when City had a chance to go eleven points clear by securing their third successive win over Fran Alonsos side this season. In the two earlier games, Celtic probably had the better of extremely tight matches and were also denied spot kicks in both games so City’s 6/6 record was perhaps misleading, to say the least.

Sunday’s match was all about Celtic proving a point and staying in the title race. Nothing less than a win would achieve that and in what was a sensational match with a dominant Celtic performance, City were swept aside as Celtic ran out 4-2 winners. We even got those two penalties were were denied earlier in the season but missed them both! The final scoreline flattered Glasgow City and you could have been forgiven for having a sneaky feeling that this would be the most significant result of the season with the title’s destination swinging in Celtic’s favour.

Unlike the Scottish Premiership this SWPL1 league is a three horse race and with the Women’s Scottish Cup semi-finals happening at Hampden this weekend (Celtic take on City on Sunday and theRangers play Motherwell on Saturday) there were league matches to be played last night.

Celtic travelled through to Edinburgh to play Hearts – this season the best of the rest outside the top three – while it was the turn of theRangers to make the short journey to Petershill Park to play Glasgow City. Earlier this week we jokingly gave the Celtic support a one-off pass to support theRangers in that game as anything other a Glasgow City win was an ideal outcome for Celtic – IF we could take care of our own business in Edinburgh.

That we did in the most pleasing of circumstances for a number of crucial reasons. Fran Alonso was worried going into this match against because Hearts didn’t have a game at the weekend and his own players had given absolutely everything in that incredible match on Sunday afternoon.

Team rotation was always going to be important with Alonso making four changes to his starting eleven from Sunday with Kelly Clark, Shen, Tegan Bowie and new signing Kit Loferski all starting. And with a confident, on-form Celtic racing into a 3-0 half-time lead with goals from the outstanding Jacynta, Celtic warrior Chloe Craig and  ‘Goal Machine’ Tash Flint, Alonso was able to rest even more legs in the second half with Jacynta, Flint and Natalie Ross all coming off to be replaced by Menglu Amy Gallacher and Maria McAneny.

Maria McAneny

That changed Celtic side added another three second half goals with Amy Gallacher getting a double and the pacy new signing Kit Loferski getting her first goal for the club. That all meant that the squad had cleared another away hurdle, with four matches into the post split fixtures, Celtic have been away to theRangers, Glasgow City and Hearts – ie the toughest fixtures and have had just one home game against Partick Thistle.

And going into the Scottish Cup semi-final against Glasgow City on Sunday the Celtic squad did not have a second closely fought ninety minutes last night as was expected, but instead rather unexpectedly, added six goals to the goal difference total – and that may well be a significant factor, as we’ll explain later.

Back to that pass we gave you to cheer on theRangers last night. Having had that tough game against Celtic and coming away with their tails between their legs, Glasgow City had to attempt to pick themselves up knowing that a Celtic win in Edinburgh coupled with them losing two theRangers would see their eight points lead reduced to just two points over Celtic and three over the other lot.

And City’s bad week continued midway through the first half when theRangers opened the scoring with this goal…

It stayed that way until the closing stages but with three minutes of the regulation ninety still to play Glasgow City drew level with this goal…

A draw would not be the worst outcome for Celtic, but truth be told we’d have preferred theRangers to take the three points. And that is exactly what happened deep into stoppage time, in th 94th minute, this happened…

That means that the SWPL1 table this morning looks like this…

Glasgow City remain top on 68 points with a goal difference of 88. Celtic are in second spot with 66 points and a better goal difference of 96 and theRangers have 65 points a goal difference of 92.

And last night Celtic were able to protect legs for the weekend’s Scottish Cup match on that big pitch at Hampden, whereas Glasgow City had yet another incredibly tough match which they lost.

Fran Alonso was certainly delighted with last night’s 6-0 win away to Hearts…

And with both Glasgow City and theRangers having to play away to Celtic, who have four home games and two away having already played more away games than our title rivals. Celtic supporters can of course play their part in this with the club offering a great deal on a four match package to see the four home games against the two Edinburgh sides and the two title rivals.

Celtic have never won the SWPL1 title before and have never retained the Scottish, because we won it for the first time last season. You should try to get along to support this brilliant Celtic team in what is the most exciting league in Scottish football this season. And on Sunday afternoon spend a fiver and get along to Hampden for the Scottish Cup semi-final between Glasgow City and history making, double chasing Celtic.

COYGIG

CELTIC’S SIX REMAINING SWPL1 FIXTURES 

  1. CELTIC FC WOMEN v HIBERNIAN – Sunday 30 April, kick-off 2pm  – Excelsior Stadium, Airdrie
  2.  CELTIC FC WOMEN v theRANGERS  – Thursday 4 May, kick-off 7pm –  Excelsior Stadium, Airdrie
  3. PARTICK THISTLE v CELTIC FC WOMEN – Sunday kick-off 7 May – 12.10pm – Petershill Park 
  4. CELTIC FC WOMEN v GLASGOW CITY – Thursday 11 May – kick-off 7.30pm – Excelsior Stadium, Airdrie
  5. HIBERNIAN v CELTIC FC WOMEN – Sunday 14 May – kick-off 1.10pm  – Meadowbank Stadium 
  6. CELTIC FC WOMEN v HEARTS – Sunday 21 May – kick-off 4pm – Excelsior Stadium, Airdrie

Here are the details on the Scottish Cup semi-final against Glasgow City…

About Author

The Celtic Star founder and editor, who has edited numerous Celtic books over the past decade or so including several from Lisbon Lions, Willie Wallace, Tommy Gemmell and Jim Craig. Earliest Celtic memories include a win over East Fife at Celtic Park and the 4-1 League Cup loss to Partick Thistle as a 6 year old. Best game? Easy 4-2, 1979 when Ten Men Won the League. Email editor@thecelticstar.co.uk

1 Comment

  1. RPM Celticfan on

    You didnt mention that unfortunatly we had a very important player for us go off injured , hopfully its not anything major and Caitlin will be fine , maybe you can update us ? COYGIG 😉