Celtic’s ‘gets the ball, scores a goal’ centre-forward perhaps didn’t understand until after the match the significance of her 13th goal in 12 starts for the Hoops in Sunday’s SWPL Cup quarter final win over theRangers at Murray Park.
A winner for Celtic in any match is always nice but a winner in a game against theRangers is off the scale as Charlie has found out since Sunday. Thousands more Celtic Fans now know her name and her attributes as a goalscorer for Fran Alonso’s team, who face Hearts in Edinburgh tomorrow evening before taking on theRangers this time at home and on league duty this Sunday. And you already know what Charlie has on her mind!
After Sunday’s fourth win in a row over theRangers for Celtic manager Fran Alonso, a delighted Charlie spoke to Colette Carr from the official Celtic FC Women website.
Charlie Wellings couldn’t have asked for a better Glasgow Derby debut than scoring the winner to see Celtic progress to the semi-finals of the SWPL Cup, and she knows full well what it took to secure the win.
“Everyone’s buzzing, we’re so happy,” Charlie stated, admitting that she’d been under more pressure than usual in the build-up to this match due to the opposition. “We had to grind it out and we had a brilliant first half. They kind of sat off us, which we didn’t expect, but we knew we had complete control of the first half and I think the best teams are the ones that can grind it out when you do and don’t have the ball.
“It always means a bit more. Coming into it, everyone was saying, “this is the one game you need to score in,” and I was just saying, “look if I score, or someone else does, it’s good with me, if we win it’s fine,” but definitely a good day at the office.”
Wellings knows all about the fighting spirit that Alonso has added to his Celtic side throughout last season and despite the personnel changes in the summer that has not changed one bit. “I think it’s a matter of having fight and knowing it’ll be a fight,”Charlie said.
“We know coming into it’ll be rough, so it’s a matter of who takes their chances and who doesn’t on the day and we took ours and we’ve came out with a win.”
The former Bristol City striker then admitted that her focus will have to quickly turn to the matter of picking up three points in Edinburgh in midweek against an improving, if inconsistent Hearts side.
“It’s done,” Charlie said. “We can celebrate now, but as soon as we get home we need to settle and recover right, because we need to win every single game in this league as we know.
“You can’t hold off and expect a win, you need to go in with the underdog mentality every game even when you know you’re not, but we go again and then prep again for next week,” she added. Next week of course is against theRangers and the good news is that the Celtic Support can head along to Airdrie after watching Ange Postecoglou’s Celtic in action on TV earlier in the day away to Dundee. You never know, with Charlie Wellings playing so well, it could end up being yet another Beautiful Sunday for Fran Alonso’s Ghirls in Green!
