There was some doubt as to whether Olivia Chance would be staying on at Celtic given her absence from the summer training camp in Gran Canaria last month. However unlike the other missing players from that trip, the likes of Charlie Wellings, Jodie Bartle and Sarah Harkes, Chance is the only one to come back and take up her place in the squad for Fran Alonso’s double cup winners as they set about their ambition of winning the SWPL1 title for the first time this season.
Tomorrow is match-day four and the 100% record will be tested by a trip to K-Park in East Kilbride to play an improved Motherwell side who have made a decent start to the season. That game kicks off at 4pm and if you’re watching the Celtic game up at Tannadice in the early kick-off there’s plenty of time to head over to East Kilbride for the 4pm kick-off.
Yesterday I was reading about Newcastle United taking their women’s team under the club umbrella having previously been operated separately by their foundation. Newcastle Women play in FA Women’s National League Division 1 North, the fourth tier of the English game but with their new owners coming in – Mike Ashley was never really interested in their women’s team – there is going to be significant investment, they already have a new first team coach and are signing players as they look to progress through the divisions over the next few years.
There’s a Celtic related point to this, back in May when Celtic were playing in the Scottish Cup Final at Tynecastle against Glasgow City, an experienced opponent, with many international players and plenty of Champions League experience, the crowd was just 4345. It was a very special game, Celtic playing with ten players for over 70 minutes, were the subject of some incredible honest mistakes yet produced an amazing performance to win the Scottish Cup for the first time in our history.
In the same month, Newcastle Women played their first ever match at St James’ Park in a nothing game and 22,134 Newcastle fans came along to support their team. Tynecastle could have been full that day and the development of the Celtic FC Women side under Fran Alonso actually merits a greater support than we are currently giving it as a fan-base.
There will be games at Celtic Park later this year when the men’s game stops for the World Cup so hopefully the Celtic support will take these chances to get along and see what the fuss is about. In the meantime K-Park tomorrow at 4pm is an option.
Liv Chance spoke to Colette Carr for Celtic TV at training yesterday and gave an update in her summer situation while looking ahead to the match against Motherwell on Sunday afternoon.
“I had a busy schedule last summer and even this June I had internationals, so I had a few niggles and we just wanted to clear them up and take a bit of time away from the field in the gym,” the New Zealand International midfielder said.
“I’ve been doing a lot of running so it’s nice to be back touching the ball and it was good to have my first start and get into it again.
“You can see the girls are in good form and we’ve started really well. Pre-season is always hard for every team and it’s about building connections.
“There was a high turnover so it’s about learning everyone’s style and how we can connect as a team this season.”
The international break kicks in after the Motherwell game and Liv Chance will once again be on her travels. But for the moment she’s focused on getting the three points on Sunday.
“They’ve had a great start to the season and they’re going to be high in confidence,” Liv said. “It’s really about us making sure we have had an equally good start, building form our performances, scoring goals and keeping clean sheets.
“It’s massive if you can carry your good performances from club to the international stage, it puts you in a good place when you do go away.
“It’s really important this year with the World Cup and everyone in our team wants to be in with their national teams and get a spot in the World Cup and congrats to Clarissa Larisey for the call-up to Canada – it’s much-deserved and I’m excited to see her do well.”
Most fans are only interested in the Celtic football club, myself included, anything outside of that has a passing interest, if that.
I went to a few reserve games too when younger, and now and then I’ll check the youth games out if there’s highlights, but tbh the womens game ranks below that for me; i have zero interest in it, and I’m sure most of our fans feel the same way.
Maybe they should try building up their own supporter base; 4000+ is still a good sized crowd, similar to or more than a lot of mens teams in this country pull in.
everyone is entitled to their views..i have watched celtic teams,both first teams and reserves..the women teams are just a progression of following THE CELTIC FC..i am 78 years old and still love going to the celtic games,having seasons tickets for both .men and women teams…bella ciao… hail hail….