Scottish Women's Football

Image source, SWPL

Hibs forward Kathleen McGovern has won the SWPL player of the month award for the second time this season.

The 22-year-old scored three goals during April - taking her season's tally to 26 - as league leaders Hibs went unbeaten with wins over Hearts, Rangers and Motherwell plus a stalemate with Celtic.

Grant Scott's side currently hold a three-point lead over Rangers and Glasgow City and host Celtic in the penultimate league fixture tonight.

Meanwhile, 17-year-old Kilmarnock forward Lucie Burns was named SWPL 2 player of the month for April.

Amy Canavan
BBC Sport Scotland

Image source, SNS

Two games, 180 minutes of football. That's all that stands between Hibernian and a first SWPL title in 18 years.

Back then, Kim Little was still kicking about in the green and white. Current star striker Eilidh Adams had just turned three. Celtic and Rangers were nowhere to be seen.

The landscape in Scottish women's football has drastically changed, but the capital club have been an ever-present. Now they're closing in on a piece of history of their own.

It's all in Grant Scott's side's hands. Wins against Celtic and Rangers and the trophy is theirs. If only it was that easy.

"It feels really exciting, brilliant in fact," Scott told BBC Scotland.

"I'm incredibly proud of the players, but I'm also really scared of what could happen with all the different angles to it.

"We're trying to keep all of our emotions in check just now. We're two 90 minutes of football away from determining where we finish.

"That's the simplicity and beauty of the game."

A straightforward as it sounds, Scott never envisaged a manic week in May like this one.

"I don't want to sound too harsh on the players at this point, but I probably had different expectations from them than probably even Stewart and Joelle, who probably had a more positive outlook than I had for the team," he added.

"But we've surpassed even their vision of where we would be, so full credit to everyone involved.

"I think we would have bitten your hand off at the start of the season to be given this opportunity, and that's all it is at the moment. If we fall short, it would be so disappointing, but we've got every chance.

"I keep saying to the players, 'why not? Why shouldn't it be us?'.

"There's a lot of work to do and we've got some really difficult opponents to play, but all of the emotions right now come from where we are."

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Rachel Corsie hopes to be involved in Scotland's upcoming Women's Nations League fixtures after returning from injury at Aston Villa.

Corsie, 35, had been national captain prior to her long-term absence, which included a period out recovering from knee surgery.

Villa announced last week that Corsie will be leaving the club at the end of the season, but the defender got some minutes as the WSL club completed their season at home with a 3-1 win against Brighton.

The former Glasgow City player told the BBC's Behind the Goals podcast that "there are no big plans to share" regarding her club future.

"Short-term, I'm just going to keep up training," said Corsie. "I'll probably just certainly keep ticking over for a little while. I will take a break. My body is desperate for a break.

"Going through a rehab for a whole year, there's been very, very, very few times I've actually had even just two days off in a row. I'm looking forward to that and just a bit of time."

Scotland face Austria at home on 30 May, which will be new head coach Melissa Andreatta's first game in charge, followed by a trip to face the Netherlands on 3 June.

And 154-times capped Corsie said: "I'd said last week one of my biggest ambitions was to try and be available for the national team."

Jane Lewis
BBC Sport Scotland Senior Reporter

Jenna Fife (Rangers): Made a brilliant save to deny an almost certain Celtic goal early in the second half. Also made some important takes under pressure. Played a big part in her sides vital win.

Nicola Docherty (Rangers): Coped well with everything that came her way. Made some crucial clearances and blocks and was willing to get forward and set up attacks.

Cassie Cowper (Montrose): Another big goal from this player as they're doing all they can to avoid the drop this season. Cowper's free kick earned three important points.

Caley Gibb (Hibs): This wasn't Hibs at their best, but Gibb was a bright spark. She was on point with her deliveries and covered well defensively.

Nicole Kozlova (Glasgow City): Scored a lovely, and important, goal to grab a point from this one. It's points dropped in the title race, but a point is better than none with potential twists and turns to come in final two games.

Chelsea Cornet (Rangers): Battled for everything in midfield, whether it was breaking up play to regain possession or chasing the ball. Was very influential.

Mya Christie (Spartans): A sublime finish to seal all three points for Spartans to move them further away from that third relegation spot. A great goal and a significant win.

Monica Forsyth (Hearts): Set up Hearts' opener, and scored their final goal in what was a good showing from the side who have nothing but pride to play for.

Kerry Beattie (Aberdeen): Two goals to seal a significant win for Aberdeen as they secured their place in the top flight for next season. She's proved a key player for Aberdeen during this loan spell.

Kirsty Howat (Rangers): Scored the only goal of the match and what a key goal it could be. A huge win as it puts Rangers back up to second and firmly in the title mix.

Brogan Hay (Rangers): Was busy all afternoon showing great trickery and skill to either keep hold of the ball or regain it. On a different day she could have been among the assists and goals.

Watch the best of Sunday's action in the bottom six of the Scottish Women's Premier League, including a victory that secured Aberdeen's safety from relegation as well as important wins for Montrose and Spartans.

Watch the best of Sunday's action in the top six of the Scottish Women's Premier League, including a draw between top two Hibernian and Glasgow City - and a crucial derby victory for Rangers.

Image source, Colin Poultney/SWPL

Celtic head coach Elena Sadiku: "It's a tough one to take. I thought Rangers' goal was poor defending from us.

"In the second half we had two really good chances to score and that could look a little bit different.

"This has been the story of the season, it's sloppy goals we let in and when we have chances we don't have the luck or the quality."

Rangers manager Jo Potter: "I thought as a whole we were outstanding. Our quality went up another level and we know we can do that we just haven't seen it consistently enough as we want.

"We needed to bring that, it was a high pressure performance and the players stood up to that. I thought we definitely deserved the three points."

Image source, Colin Poultney/SWPL

Dundee United manager Suzy Shepherd: "I don't think we deserved anything out the game.

"We worked so hard to win the ball back and then we just gave it away. From the first whistle to the last whistle we weren't able to retain the ball or secure the ball further up the pitch which caused us problems the whole time."

Aberdeen manager Scott Booth: "We're absolutely delighted. I'm really happy for the players and the staff.

"It's been a really tough season for the players, they've gone through a lot so it's a really nice reward that we can make sure we stay in the league. I'm really proud of the players."

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Motherwell manager Paul Brownlie: "I thought in the first 30 minutes we were absolutely magnificent, we played with a real purpose and created some unbelievable opportunities to a point where we could have been three or four up.

"We need to take our opportunities at this level, if you don't you get punished. I'd have loved to have seen the players score to give them a wee bit of belief but now it's onto the next one."

Hearts manager Eva Olid: "The first minutes were a little difficult, Motherwell are always difficult.

"We couldn't find space in the final third but when we scored the first goal I felt the game changed and we could enjoy playing more. We kept the ball well and that is what we want to try to do."

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Partick Thistle assistant manager Ross Stormonth: "We just didn't score enough goals, didn't score any chances.

"I don't remember our goalkeeper having to make a save after the early goal and we created more chances than we have done in the last couple of games. We just didn't score enough goals, that's the bottom line."

Montrose manager Craig Feroz: "I'm absolutely delighted, it's not easy to come down here at the best of times but I thought we were outstanding.

"It was a battle, we expected that battle and thankfully we got through."

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Spartans manager Jack Beesley: "I'm delighted with the three points, I thought we were probably good value for it and I think we created enough openings to secure the game before the point we did.

"But at this stage of the season any way you get the three points is a good result."

Queen's Park assistant manager David Brownlie: "I thought in the first half we controlled a lot of the moments, we were really good in possession.

" It was just the final action for us, we need to do a lot better. The build moments were great it's what we do after that when we reach the final third, I don't think we had a lot of attempts on goal but fair play to Spartans they made it challenging for us."

Image source, Malcolm Mackenzie/SWPL

Hibernian manager Grant Scott: "Overall on the balance of play it's probably the fairest result.

"We got ourselves into a position at half-time, probably fortuitously and then the second half became a bit of a battle.

"I'm trying to digest it all. It's two points lost certainly but I don't know it would have been fair if we'd won the match. So we'll take the point and we'll move on.

"We've got another tough game on Wednesday, we're going to focus on ourselves and hopefully we can keep producing."

Glasgow City manager Leanne Ross: "I thought it was a really poor game from our perspective, especially in the first half.

"We gave away sloppy set plays, it's cost us all season against Hibs, and they've not created any chances outside of that [today] and that's probably the most disappointing thing, it's taken us until the second half to put our foot on the ball and play.

"In the first half we played into Hibs' hands, you can't give them set plays to go ahead in the game and then it's an uphill battle from there."