Elena Sadiku picked up her second win as Celtic FC Women manager as the Ghirls claimed all three points at K Park…
Caitlin Hayes and Amy Gallacher made the difference, as they both got their names on the scoresheet to help us to victory.
Celtic got off to a good start and we even had the ball in the back of the net with 15 minutes played thanks to Amy Gallacher. Sadly, the flag was quickly raised, and the goal was ruled out. The Ghirls were caught offside quite a few times as we eased our way into the game, but we eventually broke the deadlock with a classic move – the Caitlin Hayes header. We floated a corner in, and Hayes was there to nod it in to put us in the lead with 27 minutes played.
Shortly after we opened the scoring, the home side came close, with Kelsey Daugherty having to make a last-minute block to deny them.Our final move of the opening 45 minutes came as Maria McAneny struck from a free kick just outside of the area, but the goalkeeper held it, and the whistle blew for half-time.
The second half was quite uneventful, with the only real chance coming through McAneny again. She shot at goal, but it went wide, leaving the Celts still searching for the goal that would extend their advantage.
They would find that goal with eight minutes left on the clock, as a cross from Paula Partido fell to the feet of Amy Gallacher, who made no mistake in hitting it home for her 19th goal of the season.
That was that in East Kilbride but a good day for Celtic, with three vital points secured in our bid for the SWPL title.
Elena Sadiku spoke to Celtic TV after the match, saying: “[The game was] important with three points. I talked to the players after the game and I’m actually happy that they feel frustrated that we didn’t perform better, because it just means that we’re hungry for more.
“I think we should’ve scored more goals, we had more chances to score, but we’re not really happy with some things in the game that we need to improve for the next game.
“I think the second goal gave us more comfort. In the way that we can take it easy. We could’ve scored more goals before, and I think that’s where the frustrations coming from. We didn’t finish the chances that we had that could’ve put us in a better lead.
“Three points is three points, and we are happy with it. I’m actually happy that we are not happy with the performance because that makes us want to do more. We’ve been talking about how we want to start dominating the games, and even if I think we had most of the ball, it didn’t feel like we dominated it because we were stressed in some situations, or we couldn’t solve the problems as well as we know that we can.”
Captain Kelly Clark also spoke after the victory, saying: “We got three points, which is all that matters. Difficult playing conditions for both teams. I don’t think we were great on the night. We have to control games better, but three points are the most important thing and we managed to get the job done.
“It’s been a different couple of months for us. We’ve had the [manager]transition, we’re still all trying to get used to it, to play the style of play that we want to play. I think we showed that tonight in spells, especially on the ball, but at times, you can see people hesitating and decision making isn’t always the best. But its thing that we can improve on, and we need to improve on pretty quickly.
“I think we did well to get the goals and we could’ve had more that could’ve settled the game a bit. But on a tight park, when a team are as organised as they were tonight, it’s a bit difficult. To add on top of that, it was fairly slippery. You had your fair share of both teams slipping about and falling on the ground.
“We’ll analyse tonight’s performance. We’ll look at Sunday’s opponents and it gives us a really quick opportunity to put in a performance that we’re happy with.”
It seems as though we might finally be back on track after the (expected) buffer from changing managers. This is a good win under our belt, especially with a very difficult fixture coming up on Sunday against Hibs.
The clear downside is that two goals were the difference. If we want to win the league title, we should be looking to win against lower-in-the-table teams, like Motherwell, by much more than two goals. I suppose we can’t complain though! Maybe that’s just the optimist in me.
We were creating chances though, we just didn’t finish all of them. And like Kelly said, there were moments of hesitation that could’ve resulted in the hosts reducing the deficit. Improvements on our first touches and our passing is something that we can hopefully see before the must win game at Ibrox on 18 February, and the Ghirls will need a significant sized Celtic support to attend that game – tickets on sale now via the official website.
Overall, a great win for our Ghirls. Let’s hope we can take the momentum to Edinburgh this Sunday and return home with three points! Hightlights to follow…
Jessica Elliott
A starting eleven with five forwards ,Flint Loferski Goldie Agnew Gallacher , it is a bit strange that none of them could find the net in that first half , thankfully our Warrior Queen broke the deadlock and showed the way , Hail hail Caitlin Queen o the Celts , COYGIG .