Scottish Women's Football

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Partick Thistle haven't had much time to rest and prepare for Sunday's game against Hearts.

They were held to a goalless draw by Scott Booth's Aberdeen on Wednesday night, plunging their top six hopes further into doubt as they now sit four points behind sixth-place Motherwell in the table.

They're also only four clear of the Dons below them and have an even tougher test in the form of a trip to the Oriam.

Hearts had been going strong at the top end of the table, putting pressure on the top three sides but a blip in their record, a 4-0 defeat to Celtic, coupled with Hibs' incredible run, means Eva Olid's side are now four points behind their rivals in fourth and Rangers in third.

Brian Graham's side have been known to cause an upset on their day but it's been almost three years since they last snatched a win over Hearts - that was a 4-2 victory away from home back in February 2022.

Since then, bar a 1-1 draw in May last year, Hearts have come out on top in every meeting between the pair in the last three years.

Watch live on BBC

The game will be live to watch on the BBC Sport website and app. It kicks off at 13:00.

There will also be live text commentary of the other games, starting at 12:50 on the BBC Sport Scotland app and website.

Amy Canavan
BBC Sport Scotland

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Michael McArdle said he is "a servant leader" and his aim as Scotland interim head coach is to allow the players "to be the best version of themselves".

McArdle will take charge of the national team for their opening two Nations League A games against Austria and the Netherlands later this month as the search continues for a permanent successor to the sacked Pedro Martinez Losa.

It will be the first meet-up since the Euro 2025 play-off pain in Finland in December, and McArdle is anticipating some players will still find it "difficult" when they come back next week.

"My full focus just now is just on the camp," he said.

"It's about the players more importantly. My leadership style is very servant, I'm a servant leader, so I'm here to make sure I can allow the players and the staff to be the best version of themselves moving forward.

"It'll be difficult for some because they've got that kind of feeling from the last cycle."

When asked about this squad - which has 10 new faces from the Finland roster - McArdle said "balance" is key.

"We need experience, we need a strong spine, and when you're including youth players and promoting youth players to these environments, it's crucial we surround them with that strength, quality and experience, so the balance is crucial," he added.

"The youth is crucial as well, because there is exciting talent coming through, so it's a moment in time where we need to recognise that. But, age is irrelevant, it's about who the best players are at this time."

Amy Canavan
BBC Sport Scotland

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Michael McArdle has been speaking to the media after naming his first Scotland squad as interim head coach for the opening Nations League games.

Here are are the key things he said:

• McArdle is "proud and honoured" to be appointed interim head coach and insists "the future is bright".

• After making nine changes from the squad beaten by Finland in the Euros play-off final - including six uncapped players - he said now is a good time for "freshness", "looking forward to the future" and to "reward players".

• He stressed it's an "exciting opportunity" for SWNT and added "he's been living" among the new generation of talent and so "doesn't just feel" they're the team who can get Scotland back to a major tournament.

• McArdle's full focus in on the camp, not a potential permanent appointment. His remit is to have Scotland playing in League A consistently.

• The interim head coach wants to bring "entertainment and energy" to the fanbase to excite them and win back their support.

• McArdle confirmed Leanne Ross will be his assistant while Stewart Hall from Hibernian and Chris Flockhart will also join his staff.

• In his role as head of women's elite football, McArdle added "alignment is vital" with the Under-17, Under-19 and Under-23 set-ups.

• He confirmed captain Rachel Corsie suffered another setback and is "several weeks" away from a return.

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Aberdeen continued their resurgence under head coach Scott Booth as they earned a goalless draw at home to Partick Thistle in the SWPL.

After winning three games in a row, two in the league and one in the Scottish Cup, Booth's side held top-six hopefuls Thistle.

Tiree Burchill went close late on for Jags as they pushed for a winner, while Kerry Beattie also had a chance in the closing stages for Aberdeen.

But a draw still nudges Booth's side seven points clear of the relegation zone, while Thistle remain four points in front in seventh place, and four points off the top six.

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Scotland will play at Tannadice for the first time when they host Germany in their second home women's Nations League Group A1 game in April.

Scotland, guided by interim head coach Mick McArdle following Pedro Martinez Losa's exit in December, will kick-off their campaign later this month in Austria before welcoming the Netherlands to Hampden.

The national stadium remains SWNT's home, but, the Scots played both of their Euro 2025 play-off home legs at the end of last year at Easter Road, having hosted Serbia at Firhill in July, too.

The national team were last in Dundee in July 2023 for a friendly victory against Northern Ireland at Dens Park.

Tannadice will host the first match of a double-header with Germany, before Scotland round of their campaign at Hampden against Austria four days before they visit the Netherlands for their final game.

Emma Hunter, head of the girls' academy at Hearts, stresses academies "need to keep up" with the growth of Scottish women's football as more and more clubs look abroad for players.

Hunter, who was head coach of Aberdeen before moving to the Edinburgh club, added clubs need to prioritise their academy too and "not just think of the here and now".

Just last week, Eva Olid added Dutch defender Danique Ypema from Feyenoord before American striker Ashley Williams signed on Tuesday.

"One of the big key messages when I came into this role was that you can see the women's game growing even in Scotland," Hunter said on the BBC's Behind the Goals podcast.

"[Clubs are] buying players from abroad, they're bringing in players and spending money, but we need to make sure we're keeping up and we're producing young players too.

"It saves money and it's something that we want to continue to do so they're ready to go."

In the last year, teenage twins Erin and Jessica Husband, among others, have impressed in the Hearts first team having come through the academy.

"We've got young talent representing our national team, all the way through our youth national squad up to our senior national squad," Hunter added.

"We just need to keep up as academies and make sure that clubs also prioritise their own academy because it's easy to spend a lot of money on getting the best players you can do for there and then, but if you think about how much you can save in the future, that's the key part for me, that we're all behind that message."

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Scottish Cup holders Rangers host fellow SWPL side Spartans in this year's quarter-finals.

SWPL 2 sides St Johnstone and Boroughmuir Thistle host Aberdeen and Motherwell respectively while Hearts and Glasgow City will battle at Oriam for a spot in the semi-finals.

The ties will take place on Sunday 9 March with further details to be confirmed in due course.

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Aberdeen have signed Irish defender Alix Mendez following her departure from Cork City.

Returning to the Irish side in 2023, the defender missed just three matches for Cork last season.

Mendez goes straight into Scott Booth's squad and is available for selection for Wednesday's game against Partick Thistle.

"I am really happy to be at Aberdeen," she told club media.

"I think this is the place for me to develop and continue my career. I can't wait to get going and I am really looking forward to Wednesday night."

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Glasgow City midfielder Wilma Forsblom has left the club after 13 months at Petershill.

The 21-year-old joined Leanne Ross' side in January 2024 from Finnish treble winners KuPs and went on to make 21 appearances.

The midfielder scored five goals in those outings including the openers in a 3-2 SWPL Cup victory over Hearts and a 2-0 away win to Partick Thistle.

"I'm beyond grateful for the opportunities and the memories I got to make at this great club," Forsblom shared in a statement on social media.

"Since day one I was made to feel welcome and I can't wait to see the girls shine in games to come.

"The decision was not easy to make but it was the right one for me right now.

"As the saying goes, once City, always City."

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Hearts assistant coach Pascal Xanthos: "I'm delighted, it's one of these games that can be really scrappy if you're not focused but we're so proud of the girls for bringing this character and this identity into the pitch.

"It was a chance for us just to get back to our feet and realise again how good we can be.

"We know the quality that we have in this squad and we know that we have players that can start the game or come from the bench and support us in our attempt to win the game.

"We have a lot of different scorers, a lot of variation in the way that we're scoring which is something positive for us for the remainder of the league and the next rounds of the cup.

"We're going back to our normal responsibilities now, we need to be ourselves, we need to have our identity and we need to keep our structure."

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Rangers manager Jo Potter: "We took a while to get going into the game, which is unsurprising when we have made as many changes as we made.

"Once we settled and found our rhythm we looked really good. Things that we have been working on in training came out, which is great.

"It is invaluable to get some minutes into certain players and the biggest thing for us is just to get through to the next round and a clean sheet is really nice to go along with it.

"We have got a few niggles this week, you can see that we have not got as many people on the bench than what we would normally.

"It was important that we used our squad and utilised it really well and I thought that the players that came in did excellent and put on a really good show.

"We are in the hat for both cups which is superb for us, we just need to make sure that we continue what we need to do now and keep that form going and keep looking at improving week-in, week-out and getting better and leading into the split it is going to be vital."

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Glasgow City manager Leanne Ross: "I'm really pleased in terms of achieving the objective and getting through to the next round.

"I was disappointed in the first half that we lacked a bit of composure in possession and just seemed to be going a bit too direct for my liking.

"At half-time we just reiterated the fact that there was space there and we made a formation change and a couple of personnel changes and that just brought us the composure and the ability to go and play and progress through the thirds a little bit better than we did in the first half.

"For me it was about the quality that we were bringing individually and collectively in the first half just wasn't there, and they addressed that in the second half and came and put on a much more rounded performance which is pleasing.

"It was important after a poor result last Sunday in the manner in which we lost the goals was something that we had to go and address and we've done that this week.

"We know we have got it in us, we just need to continue to deliver it."

Celtic manager Elena Sadiku: "I can't believe how we lost that game, we had enough chances to win the game in the first half.

"How we started the second half was awful and again we let in goals by errors and set plays, it's very confusing and frustrating.

"I think we had 12 shots, we create a lot of chances, it's very frustrating right now, how dominant we were in the first half, we should have probably scored one or two more goals.

"I've told the girls this is not good enough and we need to step up and we need to make sure that we don't do the errors that we did.

"It happens too many times and we need to stop it because there's nothing wrong with our style of play, we create enough chances, they don't create anything until the set plays or the errors that we do.

"We just need to get back on Tuesday and focus on winning the league."

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Glasgow City edged SWPL title rivals Celtic to book their spot in the fifth round of the Women's Scottish Cup.

Brenna Lovera scored twice as City had to come from behind to beat Celtic 3-2 while fellow top flight sides Rangers, Hearts, Aberdeen, Spartans and SWPL 2 side St Johnstone are also through to the quarter-finals.

Boroughmuir Thistle caused the upset of the day as they beat top flight side Dundee United to progress to the next round.

The visitors put serious pressure on Glasgow City in the opening stages at Petershill but it took a spectacular long-range strike from Lucy Ashworth-Clifford to give the visitors the advantage.

The winger spotted Lee Gibson off her goalline and lofted a shot from about 30 yards out, chipping the City keeper, and fired Celtic in front.

Brenna Lovera got the hosts level from the spot five minutes later though.

Emily Whelan went down in the box under the challenge of Emma Lawton and the referee immediately pointed to the penalty spot.

Kimberley Smit thought she'd given City the lead when she turned in from a Hayley Lauder free-kick but following conversations with the assistant, the goal was disallowed.

Celtic responded immediately, ran right up the other end of the park and took the lead when the ball into the box from Morgan Cross was turned into her own net by Claire Walsh.

Glasgow City got back level in the opening minutes of the second hand thanks to another cracking delivery from Lauder whose corner was headed into the back of the net by Sam van Diemen and that one did count.

Lovera stepped up once again to give City the lead. Nicola Kozlova found the striker in the box and she turned beyond the Celtic defence to finish into the bottom corner.

Rangers and Hearts go through with big wins

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Rangers hit Montrose for seven without response at Broadwood. Mia McAulay's opener was followed up by a brace from Kirsty Howat in the first half.

Chelsea Cornet, McAulay, Rio Hardy and Katie Wilkinson all got on the scoresheet in the second half and Montrose couldn't break Rangers' defence.

Hearts eased past third division side Falkirk with a 9-0 victory away from home. First half goals from Georgia Timms, Jackie Richards, Addie Handley and Brodie Greenwood had Hearts five in front at the break.

Bayley Hutchison and Sade Adamolekun both netted braces in the second period to make it nine.

Aberdeen scored three goals in 10 minutes to overcome high-flying SWPL 2 side Hamilton Accies.

Kerry Beattie opened the scoring after 78 minutes and her goal was followed up by strikes from Francesca Ogilvie and Eva Thomson to make it a 3-0 win for the SWPL side.

Spartans had an incredibly comfortable afternoon at home to SWPL 2 side Kilmarnock.

Mya Bates got the breakthrough just before half-time and followed up with a second nearly 70 minutes in. Goals from Sarah Clelland, Olivia Chomczuk and a brace for Aimee Anderson wrapped up a 6-0 victory for Jack Beesley's side.

Motherwell were comfortable winners at home to SWF League One side Bonnyrigg Rose.

Jenna Penman opened the scoring when she turned in from a corner before Amy Sharkey doubled their advantage from the penalty spot in the second half.

Sharkey found Motherwell's third and fourth, completing her hattrick with just over 20 minutes left to play.

Louisa Boyes and Sophie Black turned in Motherwell's fifth and sixth goals and Bonnyrigg couldn't find a response.

Despite being level at the break, an impressive second half display from St Johnstone saw them overcome Elgin City to win 4-2 and progress in the Scottish Cup.

Upset at United

Dundee United were eliminated from the Scottish Cup by SWPL 2 side Boroughmuir Thistle.

Becky Galbraith, formerly of Spartans, scored either side of half-time before Cara Borthwick got the third for Boroughmuir.

United pulled one back with just under 20 minutes to play when Ashley Robertson scored but it was only a consolation for Suzy Shepherd's side.

The SWPL 2 side will be in the hat for Monday's quarter-final draw at 17:30 BST.

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It's Women's Scottish Cup weekend and given the nature of the last-16 draw, one of the SWPL's big hitters will be out of the competition by the end of play on Sunday.

Celtic had trailed in the SWPL title race, seemingly tired from their European exploits, but after City's slip-up against Hibs last weekend, the pair are tied at the top of the table with Leanne Ross' side leading on goal difference.

The Scottish Cup used to be City's bread and butter. They have won the competition nine times, more than any other club, but since the emergence of the other big two in Glasgow they've struggled and haven't lifted the trophy since 2019.

This is also the same stage City were knocked out at last season, when they were beaten on penalties by Grant Scott's Hibs.

The hosts will hope to be buoyed by the news of Emily Whelan's new long-term contract. The Irish forward scored in the 3-1 win over Partick Thistle that got City to this stage.

Celtic meanwhile, have enjoyed more success in recent times, lifting the Cup in two of the last three seasons - beating City in the 2022 Cup final after extra-time. Back then, the game was still played at Tynecastle but they won it again the next year at Hampden.

The head-to-head stats skew wildly in Elena Sadiku's favour. While the games are usually only decided by a goal, Celtic have won seven of the past 10 games between them - eight if you include the penalty shootout win in the League Cup clash in November.

Sadiku's side are already out of the League Cup, at the hands of bitter rivals Rangers, but got to this stage with a 13-0 victory over Glasgow Women.

Beating City would put them firmly on the path to Mount Florida where a third Scottish Cup trophy could await.

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Rangers manager Jo Potter's red card from the SWPL cup win over Celtic has been rescinded.

The boss was shown a straight red for holding onto the ball at a throw-in as her side edged past Celtic in last month's cup semi-final.

Potter has had the sending off overturned and will not have to serve any sort of suspension.

Rangers' next game is a Scottish Cup clash at Broadwood against fellow SWPL side Montrose.

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Rangers striker Katie Wilkinson continued her remarkable campaign with two more goals in Rangers' 3-0 win over Spartans.

The 30-year-old joined Jo Potter's side in the summer following the expiration of her contract at Southampton, and has racked up 26 goals for Rangers in the SWPL after just 19 games.

No other summer signing has more - Celtic's Saoirse Noonan has scored 19 while Hibs' Kathleen McGovern is on 16 - and former Scotland international Leanne Crichton says she is one of - if not the - signing of the season.

"She's up there [with signing of the season]," Glasgow City assistant manager Crichton said on BBC's Behind the Goals podcast.

"She's a goal machine.

"She'd probably gone off the boil at little bit in recent weeks, and the last month or so, by her standards. She's a right handful."

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Defending SWPL champions Celtic have added Japanese midfielder Momo Nakao on deadline day.

The 22-year-old spent the past four four years in the United National Collegiate Athletic Association, playing for the University of Memphis.

In that time she never missed a match, scoring 15 goals and providing 15 assists in 79 appearances.

Nakao has represented her nation at youth level, playing at the U17 World Cup in 2018.

"She has great experience from Japan's youth national team and being captain for her college team," said head coach Elena Sadiku.

"The fans can expect a player that gives everything for her team-mates and the club. She's very professional and very talented. She has a great game vision and is very technical."

Robbie Boyle
BBC Scotland

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Elgin City Women are preparing to play in the last 16 of the Scottish Cup for the first time, just 18 months after the club was started.

The fifth-tier side are the lowest ranked club left in the competition, and face St Johnstone from the SWPL2 on Sunday, having beaten Championship side Dryburgh Athletic in the previous round.

Elgin City's Director Chris Foot says the tie in Perth is "huge" for the club.

"It's hard to say how big a game it is with Elgin being in the fifth tier of women's football, we know we are the massive underdogs.

"But we go down there with confidence. We already caused a giant killing against Dryburgh.

"Financially, it's not going to give us a lot but for us it is the pride in it.

"For the first time we are taking a coachload of fans down, we're hoping for about 150 fans to be there."

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Glasgow City boss Leanne Ross has backed Emily Whelan to "kick on even further" after the Republic and Ireland signed a new three-and-a-half year deal.

Whelan has made 89 appearances and scored 32 goals for City since arriving from Birmingham in summer 2022.

The 22-year-old helped the club win the SWPL title in her first season and is "very excited" to be staying.

"I have developed a lot both as a player and as a person and I'm keen to continue to do that at the best place for me," she added.

Ross hailed Whelan as a "fantastic person to have at the club" and said: "She has made a huge impact both with the goals that she has scored and the contributions she makes to her team-mates. A player who works hard day in, day out.

"We've got aspirations for her to kick on even further and I'm looking forward to working with her for the years to come.''

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"Aggressive" Danique Ypema "fits the profile" of a Hearts player, says Eva Olid after signing the centre-half from Feyenoord until the summer.

The former Dutch youth international joins the SWPL side having experienced Champions League football with Twente, where she played before spending three seasons with Feyenoord.

The 25-year-old has spent her entire career in the Netherlands, which head coach Olid added is "a great football upbringing".

"It's no secret that we're a little light on numbers in the backline, with a couple of long-term injuries, so firstly we're pleased to be able to strengthen in that area," Olid said.

"Danique fits our profile and the style we want to play. She's comfortable in possession, but is also aggressive in her defending, which I love. Having spent her entire career in Holland, she's had a great football upbringing.

"Her personality has shone through in the meetings we've had, and I have no doubt that she will be a good addition to our squad."