Fran Alonso will this week have the toughest task he’s faced so far as the Celtic FC Women manager. Lifting the team’s spirits after a Glasgow Derby defeat is not something he’s had to do since arriving at the club but that’s the situation as the squad file back into training ahead of a massive game this Sunday.
Until yesterday Alonso had a 100% win record over theRangers with four wins from four games and it should be noted that these were all remarkably close encounters with Celtic usually coming up with the winner when it mattered most. All five games have been settled by one goal wins and yesterday, maybe down to the law of averages, it was Celtic’s turn to draw the short straw.
An early goal gave the visitors an advantage after Tegan Bowie lost possession around the halfway line as she looked for a forward pass. The ball broke nicely for theRangers striker Jane Ross who caught Chloe Logan well off her line and was able to quite comfortably lob the ball into the empty Celtic net.
Still, Celtic had plenty of time to do something about that but in what was a disappointing match, the visitors hit the Celtic bar on a couple of occasions while Charlie Wellings tried her best to get shots away from distance for Celtic, but it looked like that early goal was going to be enough for the visitors and so it turned out.
Alonso now finds himself five points adrift of the leaders (theRangers) and three behind current Champions Glasgow City. With Celtic still having to play both rivals home and away it’s going to be pretty much essential to start beating both of those sides if Celtic are to achieve their SWPL1 goals for this season.
Next up for the Celtic women’s side the SWPL Cup semi-final this Sunday against seven times Cup winners and current holders Hibs. This game along with the other semi-final between Glasgow City and Spartans will be held back-to-back at Forthbank Stadium in Stirling on Sunday afternoon.
The Glasgow City v Spartans semi-final kicks off at midday and will be followed later in the afternoon (kick-off 4.30pm) by the Celtic v Hibs semi-final.
Hibs will also be looking to pick themselves up after losing 3-0 to Glasgow City yesterday. The earlier SWPL league match between Celtic and Hibs was very close and looked to be heading for a 1-1 draw until Charlie Wellings scored a stoppage time screamer.
Fran Alonso will be looking to take Celtic to the Cup Final with a win on Sunday and in doing so raise the spirits for another title fightback. It’s still too early for anyone to be ruling out these Ghirls in the title race.
