Celtic defender Jodie Bartle spoke to the Celtic Fan Media earlier today, although Scottish TV were also present. That probably suggests that today’s media conference was pooled and credit to STV for making the effort to attend ahead of Sunday’s resumption of play in the SWPL as Celtic host Glasgow City at K-Park in what could turn out to be a decisive match in this stop-start-stop campaign for the professional women’s game.
The Celtic Star along with The Cynic have been covering the women’s game all season long so it was encouraging to see additional interest from the likes of the blog 67HailHail, More Than 90 Minutes, Celtic Fans TV and a handful of the Celtic podcasts.
This will inevitably result in wider coverage for the SWPL where Celtic are two points behind both Sunday’s visitors and theRangers in a three way tussle for the title. Jodie spoke about the frustrations of the two lockdown spells for the women’s game and questioned whether the Scottish Government and the Scottish FA should have allowed the SWPL as a professional league to continue to play at the start of this year when they closed down all but the Scottish Premiership and Championship.
The SWPL was the only professional league to be included in the restrictions imposed at the start of this year, she noted.
Jodie’s Celtic teammates couldn’t even meet up for training and for the former PE teacher, playing her first full season as a professional after being brought North of the Border by Celtic’s charismatic head coach Fran Alonso, the frustrations were clear. Indeed after a year at the club she’s only managed SEVEN competitive games although it has to be said, these have been few in number but high in drama and talking points.
I chatted to Jodie about two very special away wins back in November, the 1-0 victory over theRangers at their Training Centre on that Beautiful Sunday, 15 November and the 6-2 win away to Hibs the following Friday. In the first match, Jodie thought she’d won the match for Celtic in stoppage time only for the referee to call the play back to give Celtic the ‘advantage’ of a penalty kick. She could laugh about it today and was smiling then as Summer Green, who left the club in January to return home to States, smashed it into the top corner to give Celtic the win.
Jodie accepted my description of the referee’s decision that day being an ‘Honest Mistake’ but thankfully she didn’t have too long to wait to get her first goal for Celtic. Hibs are a decent side and the next Friday (20 November) they clearly intended to take the game to Celtic and it should be said, the home side played very well in the first half at Ainslie Park that evening.
The half-time score though was Hibs 1 Celtic 5 and the visitors had been devastating in their forward play. Jodie explained that Hibs high press allowed Celtic to break and the flood of goals left the supporters watching on BBC Alba thrilled and the Hibs players looking punch-drunk as they walked off the pitch at the break. “We didn’t think we’d played that well,” Jodie admitted today, “but everyone was telling us we’d played brilliantly.”
The most frustrating aspect of the early part of the season was what happened in the next game when Forfar Farmington shocked Celtic at K-Park by going into a 2-0 lead. Indeed it took two very late goals to salvage a point but those dropped points have left Celtic trailing by 2 points behind both Sunday’s visitors and the big spending theRangers (who beat Glasgow City on December).
Jodie was pleased that the SWPL will complete a full fixture list of three matches against each opponent, rather than cutting things short to two rounds, home and away, in a curtailed campaign. It means that the fixtures are going to come thick and fast between now and Sunday 6 June when Celtic will make the short journey to Penny Cars Stadium to play Motherwell.
By that time, if things go according to plan, Celtic could be Champions and could be heading for the Champions League next season. Asked if that’s the target Jodie said “absolutely” but after today she’d be a little wary of that uniquely Scottish aspect of professional football, the ‘Honest Mistake’.
Easter Sunday’s SWPL top of the table clash between Celtic and Glasgow City from K-Park is live on BBC Alba with a kick-off time of 4.10pm. Please tune in, you’ll love it! And come on Jodie and the other Ghirls in Green.
And catch up with Jodie on the various Celtic podcasts — welcome to the party Bhoys!
