An impressed Lisa Robertson watched on at Tynecastle as her Celtic teammates went down to ten players then played for 70 minutes in the Scottish Cup Final against Glasgow City as if they had the extra player. Their reward was of course collecting the Scottish Cup for the first time in Celtic’s history and that sits alongside the League Cup that was won against the same opponents last December – all while the Scotland international was away on a season long loan at Birmingham City.
The season before Lisa Robertson was Celtic’s Player of the Year as Fran Alonso took the title race to the last day and would have been champions had theRangers not lost to Glasgow City. That was actually the last time that they lost in the league, if anyone else is seeing the significance.
So to get Robertson back is effectively like a new signing and like most of the new arrivals that Fran Alonso has brought in this summer she is a tried and tested player with international experience. And talking of theRangers that season Celtic won all the matches against them and the player mostly responsible for that was the general in the middle of the park who ran the show. That was Lisa Robertson. After a particularly impressive away win against them Lisa’s was described as the Bobby Murdoch of Fran Alonso’s team. Now there’s praise.
The season loan was agreed due to circumstances outside of football and it has allowed the Scotland midfielder to experience football south of the border, albeit in an unsuccessful season for a struggling Birmingham City. Now though it’s back to Celtic and chance to challenge for major honours and the opportunity to take the club back into the Champions League.
Today Lisa spoke to Cynic Women and The Celtic Star ahead of the match against Spartans at Airdrie’s Excelsior Stadium on Sunday lunchtime (kick-off has been moved forward to 12noon to allow Celtic supporters to attend both matches, first the SWPL encounter then the Celtic v Hearts match at Celtic Park which kicks off at 3pm.
“I’ve brought back more experience from my time at Birmingham than I had before. It was good to go away and play against different opponents and play in a different team with a different style so I felt that that helped develop my game,” Lisa said.
“Hopefully when a game comes around that is a bit harder than the previous week I’ll be able to show that experience to get the win,” the Celtic midfielder said.
And on the improvement in the team since the season before last, Lisa Robertson is in no doubt that Celtic has got better. “I feel that the team I’ve come back to is a lot better than the team I left and the Ghirls have done great. They’ve obviously won silverware and that’s what every club want to do so I felt that coming back the Ghirls are in a much better place and it’s a much better team.
“The squad obviously is a bit different so I just want to add to that, just gel in with them and hopefully add to it and hopefully we can do that again this season,” she added.
There’s Champions League action this evening involving two of Celtic’s rival but unfortunately a more inconsistent league campaign – despite a brilliant 100% record in cup ties – cost Celtic the chance to get back into Europe’s top club competition. Getting back into the Champions League next season is therefore a major objective for this season, preferably achieving that via the Champions route.
“Every team in this league wants to be playing in the Champions League so for us not to be there this season is disappointing,” Lisa said. “It’s obviously a goal of ours but that obviously is a long way away, there’s a long season to go but obviously everyone would like to play in the Champions League, so fair play to Glasgow City and (the)Rangers who achieved that last year.”
On keeping an eye on the team while on loan at Birmingham and watching the two cup finals last season, Lisa told us that she was at Tynecastle for the Scottish Cup Final to cheer on her Celtic teammates.
So was she keeping up with how her Celtic teammates were getting on throughout last season? “Of course I was. I was always a Celtic player as you know and obviously I’m back. Every week I looked out for the scores.
“Obviously I was down there and I had a job to do there. I was playing in a different team but of course I always looked to see how my (Celtic) teammates were getting on.
“Obviously I was at the (Scottish Cup) Final. I thought the Ghirls were brilliant. To go down to ten ‘men’ and still look like they were playing with an extra player was unbelievable, the character that everyone of them showed to make sure that they won the cup.
And Lisa outlined her thoughts on whether this is a better team that the one that won the two cups last season. “Well I think from what we have added, we’ve added international players which always helps and brings in experience so I would like to think that we’ll go on and do just as well as last season.
On being back at Celtic and improving her chances with Scotland she’s hopeful that playing for Fran Alonso’s side will have a positive impact. “I’d like to think so, that’s nothing that I am in control of. I have just got to play how I play and hopefully that’s enough to be selected.”