Women’s Scottish Cup semi-final
Sunday, October 6, 2013
Ravenscraig Regional Sports Facility
 
Glasgow City 3

Celtic 0

CELTIC’S Women produced a brave, battling performance in this Scottish Cup semi-final at Ravenscraig, but it was not enough, and a goal midway through the first half and two late strikes by their opponents saw the Hoops go out of the cup by a 3-0 margin.

Glasgow City started the match strongly and they took the lead just after 20 minutes when a headed clearance dropped at the feet of City midfielder Love who flicked the ball up and from some distance struck a looping shot high into the net, leaving Gemma Fay with no chance of reaching it.

Celtic’s best chance came through Julie Fleeting with a close-in header turned round the post by goalkeeper Dalziel.  However, the pattern throughout the first half remained the same, with City having the bulk of possession and Celtic looking menacing in their breaks.

The second half began with the score still 1-0 to City, and for the first few minutes the game appeared to open out, with both teams making forays into their opponents’ halves. However, it wasn’t long before the pattern of City possession and occasional Celtic counter-attacks was re-established. 

The Celtic midfield was forced into defensive mode for most of the match and were unable to support the attack. A few chances were created by the Hoops, especially when Brown had a shot saved by the keeper after out-running the defence. But it was no surprise, really that City added to the score with two goals in the last 15 minutes.

This was a huge disappointment for Celtic who have had a very encouraging second half of the season. There were absolutely outstanding contributions by Fay, Jones and Brown and hard-working performances from Craig, Brownlie, Richards and Sjoman. 

It wasn’t enough on the day, and thoughts will now return to trying to continue their move up the league table.

After the game, manager David Haley said: “Firstly, I am extremely proud of the performance the girls put in. They worked and fought right to the end of the game. I can´t fault anyone in the team for effort or work rate.

“In previous games against Glasgow City we have struggled to create opportunities but, today we created a number of chances and maybe with better decision-making we could be looking at a different scoreline. 

“We knew that Glasgow City were going to have more possession than us and we accepted that, but I always felt we would create something and that can´t always have been said in the past.

“As a squad we are growing stronger and stronger and will continue to develop. This group of players is very talented and we will continue to get better the more we are together. 

“We move to the league game against Glasgow City next weekend and once again feel that we can take something from that game.”
 
CELTIC: Fay, Brownlie, Jones, Craig, Sjoman, Arthur, Clark (McKean 70), Richards, Fulton (Docherty 75), Brown, Fleeting (Gilmour 60). Subs not used: Farrell, McKerlie, O´Neill.