Fran Alonso was looking to get the SWPL1 match against Motherwell, which was postponed just before Christmas, played as quickly as possible in order to try to get the three points on the board. The Celtic FC Women manager wanted to play the match last midweek but that didn’t suit Motherwell so the earliest possible date was last night, with the game duly clashing with the Scottish Premiership match at Celtic Park against St Mirren.
That fixture clash had been overlooked by Alonso, had he realised the game was on at the same time as Ange Postecoglou’s side was the focus for the Celtic support then he’d certainly have waited a little longer before playing Motherwell.
And with his side scoring 17 goals in the first two games of 2023, without the club’s top scorer who was transferred to Swedish side Hacken for a substantial transfer fee, Alonso probably considered that he had more than enough firepower to cope against a team that Celtic have scored plenty of goals against during his time in charge.
Had he been more cautious perhaps we would have waited for the transfer business to conclude and for the new signings to arrival, as we are expecting another one, maybe two after American wingback Hana Kerner was signed earlier this week.
What Celtic need is another striker after losing Clarissa Larisey who was probably the best player in the women’s game in Scotland in 2022. She leaves a massive quality gap in this Celtic squad. Larisey of course only moved into the number 9 position after Celtic sold that clinical poacher Charlie Wellings last summer. Wellings had scored 40 goals in her one season at Celtic, but such was the quality of Clarissa Larisey that Charlie was hardly missed.
Now though both are gone and while 17 goals were scored against low quality opponents, lower league Falkirk in the Scottish Cup and ‘pointless’ Glasgow Women, so far out of their depth in the SWPL1 that it’s embarrassing, the first minor test after the big-money transfer of the Canada international striker was a costly fail and two valuable points dropped.
The wifi at Celtic Park has improved considerably so many supporters, especially in the second half against St Mirren last night would have been checking their twitter updates from the game in Airdrie after the stadium announcer and the giant scoreboards at Paradise told us that it was worryingly goalless at the interval at the Excelsior Stadium.
The lack of tweets in the closing stages, nothing after 81 mins until the final whistle, told its own story. This was not a performance that we’d be disappointed to miss. Then the full time, 0-0 tweet came in as we were leaving Paradise, one guy looking at his phone in front of me got the final score and had just one four letter word to say.
On Sunday while Celtic were beating Glasgow Women easily enough, Hearts took a point off current Champions theRangers. That seemed significant and should have given Celtic a real boost in the title race. To throw that away was “disappointing” for Fran Alonso and the real winners from these results are current leaders Glasgow City who are now five points clear of Celtic.
Celtic play Partick Thistle on Sunday. Thistle are probably a better side than Motherwell but there can be no question of failing to get the three points if Celtic are to remain as realistic title contenders. And as soon as possible, Celtic need to bring in a striker!
Fran Alonso spoke to Celtic TV last night and struggled to hide his frustration at dropping two valuable points.
“Disappointing. We had a game-plan that we were unable to execute,” Fran said. “Saying that we had a clear chance right at the beginning that we missed, and we had another clear chance that we missed. It was a game where we didn’t create as many chances as we thought that we would.
“It’s a tough one because it’s a huge opportunity lost. The pitch was not ideal. Overall I’m disappointed with the result and also with the performance,” the Celtic boss said.
“They never threatened us. Their game-plan was different, it was constant time-wasting, players going down and I think that in these aspects the referee was very permissive. I don’t know the effective playing time but it wasn’t much but they managed to frustrate us,” he noted.
“We got a point but for us you cannot feel good. A draw is like a defeat, so it’s disappointing and another clear sheet is perhaps the only positive. We’ve only conceded in one league game this season but there’s so many points dropped so far,” Fran noted.
Those goals were lost away to Glasgow City in a 2-1 defeat, with City scoring the winner in stoppage time on the break as Alonso’s side were pushing hard for the victory themselves. Amy Gallacher was also denied a stonewall penalty in that match, annoying as City’s opener came from the spot and was no more a penalty that the one that had been previously denied to Celtic.
The other points dropped was the goalless draw away to theRangers but that was more a point gained.
“This is not a defeat but for us it feels that way,” Fran Alonso admitted last night. “For every game we lose or don’t play well it’s a learning opportunity and for me a game on Sunday is a positive because we can put this behind us as soon as possible. We go in on Friday to prepare for the game and hopefully we can see a much better performance with hopefully the three points.
“There are no easy games in this league and I have been saying that the Ghirls have been outstanding but not today. I’m sad about it but it’s football and hopefully it doesn’t happen again,” the Celtic manager stated.
Here’s Fran Alonso speaking to Celtic TV at the Excelsior Stadium in Airdrie last night after the frustrating 0-0 draw against Motherwell. More from Celtic centre-half Caitlin Hayes to follow.
