One more item for Dominic McKay’s To-Do list, and a long overdue Beautiful Sunday

Midfielder Rachel Donaldson found herself playing in an unfamiliar wingback role against Hearts on Sunday as Celtic FC Women looked to get their title challenge back on track against the Edinburgh visitors to K-Park.

Fran Alonso fielded a very young team, packed with teenagers and the 25 year old Donaldson found herself in the side as one of the ‘veterans’. Six teenagers started for Celtic in the 3-0 win and a further two came on as substitutes so it’s fair to say that this is a developing squad that hopefully is going to improve over the next few seasons.

An incidentally one item on new CEO Dominic McKay’s to do list will be to examine the level of investment that is needed in the women’s game to bring Celtic up towards the two Champions League spots. It’s annoying to see theRangers 5 points ahead of Celtic – despite our team winning the only Glasgow Derby of the season so far – but it has to be noted that the so-called cash strapped Ibrox outfit did invest heavily in their women’s team last summer and have had an immediate benefit from that. Over to you Dom.

Celtic manager Fran Alonso’s delight at beating theRangers…Photo: Malcolm Mackenzie

Donaldson had little difficulty adapting to the wingback role, indeed she managed to score a spectacular 25 yarder to give Celtic the opening goal of the game. “It was something different playing at wingback,” Rachel told Colette Carr at the official Celtic FC Women website, “but like I said last week wherever the coaches ask me to go I will and I’ll give it 100%. I definitely think I’ve got the pace and the legs to get up and down as a wingback so I enjoyed it.

“Back post runs are something I’ve been missing so I was please I managed to get something on it, but I need to be contributing more with goals.”

Donaldson recognised that the Celtic players had to show the correct response after the disappointing performance and result the previous weekend against Glasgow City that has left the Hoops five points adrift in this spot as they chase one of the two Champions League spots and possibly even the title. Yet Hearts, who had been beaten 10-0 by the Hoops in Edinburgh earlier in the season managed to see out the first half on Sunday without conceding.

“We’re used to everyone playing their best game against Celtic, so at half time we went in and didn’t panic, just spoke about what we were doing well, what we could do better, moving the ball a bit faster and went out and implemented it in the second half,” Rachel explained.

“We know teams will be up for a fight against us, but we were never panicked at any point. Hearts have some really good players, but I think we handled them very well. It was a great defensive performance too, and Rachael getting her cleansheet was brilliant, and a couple of the young ones had some really great performances out there as well, so there’s loads of positives.

“We wanted to make that statement that we are a versatile team and we’re confident in our ability,” the 25 year-old Celt said.

“The girls work really hard in training and it’s really important they know there’s a place for them if they work hard. In previous years, some of the big teams have found it hard to hold onto young players because they know they can get game time dropping down the leagues, so its good to see the girls have the ambition, work rate and effort, and they clearly have the ability as well because they didn’t look out of place at all,” Donaldson added.

Celtic’s next game is away to The Spartans FC (a team that embraces its the – you have no idea how much ‘love’ we get for using the from their horribles) on Sunday  18 April and the kick-off time is 2pm. This game will be shown live on BBC Scotland channel.

A win in the Scottish Cup against theRangers and three points against theSpartans will make it a long overdue Beautiful Sunday. Come on you Bhoys and Ghirls in green…

Watch this…

About Author

The Celtic Star founder and editor, who has edited numerous Celtic books over the past decade or so including several from Lisbon Lions, Willie Wallace, Tommy Gemmell and Jim Craig. Earliest Celtic memories include a win over East Fife at Celtic Park and the 4-1 League Cup loss to Partick Thistle as a 6 year old. Best game? Easy 4-2, 1979 when Ten Men Won the League. Email editor@thecelticstar.co.uk

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