Kelly Clark has been talking to Celtic FC Women reporter Colette Carr this week, as the Celtic captain looks back on her brilliant landmark achievement reached in last weekend’s 6-0 win over Partick Thistle in the SWPL1, of reaching 200 appearances for the club.
Colette recalls Kelly reaching the 150 mark two and a half years earlier and a conversation that they had in March 2019 ahead of the next 50 matches which the Celtic captain regards as the best of the lot. Even then Clark had an eye on reaching the 200 mark for the Hoops and she can now look ahead to getting to 250, starting tomorrow with the short trip to North Lanarkshire to play Hamilton.
“I can vaguely remember doing that interview, and last year feels like a lost year, but we’ve come on leaps and bounds since then,” the Celtic captain told Carr, as reported on Celtic FC Women’s official website.
“I can’t remember if we spoke about ambitions then, but if you’d said to me then, “do you think by the time you’ve hit 200, you’ll have played Champions League football?” I’d have said, “let’s take one step at a time”, but here we are and we’ve done it. It’s been an amazing 50 games since with unbelievable and unforgettable occasions.”
Two and a half years later, you’ve made it, @kellyclark_94 💭https://t.co/FrRVh76qdo https://t.co/rx1qSXw7on pic.twitter.com/1VCkB8w5oZ
— Celtic FC Women (@CelticFCWomen) October 8, 2021
The pandemic of course resulted in a delay for the 27 year old in reaching the landmark, with so many games lost, amid league cancellations, cups not contested and a complete lockdown of the game for a long period of time. Was this frustration? “I guess,” Kelly admitted. “For a woman to hit 200 is a huge milestone and like you mentioned there’s so fewer games in a season for us, so hitting 200 is amazing, but I’d probably be edging on 250 if we hadn’t had that season cancelled.
“I don’t know if it annoys me as such, but put like that it’s maybe a bit frustrating. The whole COVID delaying the league situation was frustrating, but we got Champions League football at the end of it.
“Would we have gotten the same if there wasn’t COVID and all those breaks? I don’t know, so maybe that was meant to be and we reacted well to the breaks both times. Even though we came back and our first result was a defeat we went on a big unbeaten run. In terms of hitting landmarks on a personal note it’s maybe a little frustrating, but the way the team played last year even though difficult times made me immensely proud, and we got Champions League, so I’ll take a COVID break for that.”
Looking back to 2019 the Celtic captains knows that the women’s team have come a very long way indeed in developing a professional set-up from those more amateurish days. “We weren’t even professional then, so it’s been an unbelievable 50 games, and probably the most important of the 200 to be honest.
Fantastic week for the team with 9 points from 9 possible!
Great performance, 6 goals and a clean-sheet!
To top up the day, our very own @kellyclark_94 had her 200 game for the Club and an 84’ win for our bhoys @CelticFC!!
Great day for us all Celts!! 🍀🍀
Mon the hops!! pic.twitter.com/F1Cjn6z5aU— Fran Alonso (@FranAlonsoFA) October 3, 2021
“We went professional and I’ve continued to captain the squad but I’ve obviously stayed with my day job too. The squad have done so well under Fran and got huge results against (the)Rangers last season to get ourselves in a really good place to qualify after being written off. Then you’ve got the Champions League, so they’re up there with the best two games of the whole 200. Even though the results weren’t what we wanted, we did ourselves proud.”
Ahead of kick-off in front of her nearest and dearest on Sunday, she was able to enjoy a moment of celebration with a presentation with her teammates, coaches and even her dad on the pitch.
“Sunday was amazing – it was everything I could’ve asked for it to be. The fact my family and my boss were there to all see me play that 200th game was really nice – they all traveled down to watch and absolutely loved it. They don’t see me play very often given they live so far away, so it was a really nice day all in and we got the result to top it off.
“Having the presentation with my dad was a really nice touch,” Kelly said.
Concentration faces 👊
The #Ghirls working hard at training! #COYGIG 🍀 @CelticFC pic.twitter.com/01Nu3e9NYs
— Celtic FC Women (@CelticFCWomen) October 8, 2021
#SWPL | ICYMI, here are this Sunday’s @SWPL match details ⬇
Which match are you going to? 🏟 pic.twitter.com/xgQQug9dpd
— Scottish Women’s Premier League (@SWPL) October 8, 2021
On to the next one at New Douglas Park @CelticFCWomen take on @accieswfc this Sunday. Tickets on the door and a ppv stream available worldwide on the day at https://t.co/YXOkkha438 for £5 pic.twitter.com/uczDFw5Sqs
— Cynic Women (@CynicWomen) October 6, 2021
Keep up to date on Twitter @HarryHoodBook
Fantastic achievement Kelly well done. You can see when you play and when you are on Celtic tv what being a part of our club means to you. Hh