TWO goals from Josephine Giard and a cracker from Rachel Donaldson gave Celtic an impressive 3-0 win at the Superseal Stadium yesterday against Hamilton Accies in the Scottish Women’s Premier League Cup quarter-final.
The team moved up a gear in this match to produce their most impressive performance in this the fourth game of the new season. After last weekend’s goalless draw it was back to scoring ways for Celtic, who incidentally have yet to concede this term.
Megan Cunningham, the talented Celtic keeper, failed to make this game due to injury and her place was taken by Kiera Gibson, who will have been delighted to have kept another clean sheet for the Hoops.
Kiera was a virtual spectator in the early exchanges as Celtic pressed the home side who were forced to defend deep but was excellent when called upon. Colette Cavanagh and Littlejohn were causing problem for Accies down the left hand side while the pacy Donaldson threatened Hamilton on the other side.
Josephine Giard came close to opening the scoring with a decent header that was just off target. Two or three other opportunities were squandered by the visitors before Hamilton almost hit Celtic with the classic sucker punch. Accies broke at pace and looked certain to score but this brought out a fine save from Gibson in the Celtic goals.
Celtic continued to dominate the match and after winning a series of corners, Josephine Giard, the Celtic striker was the more determined to win an aerial battle and her header sailed into the net to give the visitors a well deserved half-time lead.
It was more of the same in the second 45 minutes as an increasingly confident Celtic side passed the ball around comfortably, tiring out their opponents in the process. Hamilton were simply no match for Celtic on this form and the second goal, when it arrived just before the hour mark, was of no surprise to anyone. Again it was the striker Giard who scored from close range after some desperate Accies defending had prevented earlier attempts. A good striker is always in the right spot to pick up anything on offer and so it was in this instance. 2-0 Celtic, and effectively job done, game over.
Aches, to be fair tried to rally, to stay in the cup but it was a thankless task and Celtic added to their woes in the last minute when Keenan broke from her right full back position and crossed perfectly for Donaldson to hammer her shot into the Accies top corner for the moment of the game.
The full-time whistle went shortly afterwards and Celtic celebrated the final score in this quarter final tie, Hamilton Accies 0 Celtic 3.
Wonder who we will get in the semi-final?
The Celtic Star: Josephine Giard
Celtic: Gibson, Keenan, Rafferty, McCulloch, Cavanagh, Clark, Littlejohn, Adams (Richards), Ross (Ewens), Giard (Pullar), Donaldson. Subs not used: Cairney, McGovern, O’Neill, Connor
