Scottish Women's Football

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Head coach Elena Sadiku is hoping Celtic fans will turn out in their numbers for Friday night's visit of Hibs to the Excelsior Stadium.

The teams are joint on full points after the first four SWPL matchdays but the Edinburgh side have a marginally better goal difference.

Sadiku's side also have their Champions League qualifier against KuPS in Finland looming on Wednesday.

"I'm always trying to give my players the best environment," the Swede said.

"I know it's important for me that fans show up. I want them to feel how cohesive the club is when it comes to fans.

"I know for the men it's on a different level. They show up every game and I just want more people to see how great my players are.

"The type of football we play I know is what people like. I just want the players to have the best experiences so I really hope the fans show up."

Image source, Queen's Park

Craig Joyce is hopeful his Queen's Park team can "keep the buzz" by following up their first SWPL win of the season with another victory when they visit Dundee United on Wednesday night.

Newly-promoted Queen's Park edged out Spartans 1-0 on Sunday, while United have shipped 23 goals in opening with three successive defeats.

"The boost in confidence that Sunday gave us will stick around for a while," said head coach Joyce.

"But the game is done and it's important we put in another positive performance to keep the buzz around the place.

"We know we are up against a side who will be hungry to kickstart their season after some tough opening games, and travelling to Dundee midweek makes it a little more tricky.

"It's also a three game week for us so it's important we approach the match with the necessary considerations, but the girls are capable of putting in a performance that sees us build on what we have learned so far this season."

Image source, SWPL

Ciara Grant insists Hibs is the "perfect fit" after crossing the Edinburgh divide this summer when Eva Olid "made me leave" Hearts.

The Republic of Ireland midfielder says she remains mystified over head coach Olid's reasons for moving her on and revealed they weren't on speaking terms in the final weeks of last season.

Grant, 31, told the BBC Scotland's Behind the Goals podcast: "It's really hard what happened because I signed with Hearts because of my conversation with Eva.

"Everybody was shocked, the changing room was completely shocked, I was blindsided, I didn't understand what was happening.

"Still to this day I don't know the reason why, other than she somehow saw me as a threat. If you’ve seen me play football for Hearts it still doesn't make sense in my head.

"I spent the last three weeks at Hearts not speaking to my manager because I'd asked for clarification and somehow it turns out that I didn't support her enough. It was all about how hard things were for her and I just had to keep my head down."

Grant opted for a move to Hibs despite offers from English clubs because she has "unfinished business" in the SWPL.

"From day one I had a really good feeling about the place," she added.

"Hibs came in for me as soon as they heard Hearts were releasing me. There were some options down south but at this stage of my career I'm quite happy in Edinburgh and with my life outside of football.

"It is weird moving to your rival team because your brain for the last two years has been focused on thinking that they're the enemy.

"The conversations that I had with the staff and the senior players and Joelle [Murray] being on the coaching staff made the transition quite nice.

"I could have chosen not to go to Hibs but it was the perfect fit for me."

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Kelly Clark can't believe the growth in the women's game after she took to the pitch for her 300th Celtic appearance.

The defender made her debut in a 10-0 victory over Kilwinning back in March 2013 and since then has led the side to consecutive Scottish Cup triumphs in 2021 and 2023, as well as their first league title last season.

"I say it all the time but I'm in love with the club and everything that comes with it, so to get the opportunity to represent them 300 times is just a massive honour for me," the captain said.

"Every time you walk on the pitch as a Celtic player is a special moment and I've loved every one of them.

"When we first arrived women's football was a hobby, the only spectators inside the park were your family, we were the last on the training park at night and you were never anybody's first thought.

"The growth in the game is amazing to see and I love what it's becoming. The sky is the limit for us and the strides forward the club has taken in the last few years is beyond my wildest dreams.

"I'm so grateful to have both played in the past so that I can experience the changes and thankful that the next generation won't need to experience what I have. But it makes me appreciate what we have much more than what anybody in the future ever will."

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Aberdeen are ready to put a turbulent summer behind them, says captain Hannah Stewart.

The Dons lost three of their best players, including last season's SWPL top scorer Bayley Hutchison, then new head coach Colin Bell stepped down for "personal reasons" after the Dons shipped 18 goals in their opening two SWPL games.

Interim boss Stuart Glennie oversaw the team's first win of the new campaign - a 2-0 victory over Montrose - and Sunday's 5-0 loss to Celtic, a defeat that came with positives according to striker Stewart.

She said: "Those are the games you want to playing as a footballer and test yourself against the best teams.

"I think you could see we stuck together as a team, tried to play at times, limited them to chances so I think we can take a lot of positives from the game, particularly the way we defended and we can take that into the next game.

"It's been tough, we lost key players from our team but that's the nature of football.

"We've recruited well. On the pitch we've stuck together as a team, we've all got shared ideas. It's been tough but we put that behind us now and we look forward."

We asked for your views after another high scoring weekend of SWPL action.

Here's what some of you had to say:

David: Another good result for Hearts Women - goals being spread throughout the team is encouraging. Maybe they can show the men's team how it’s done! On a serious note the number of very high scores will do little to enhance the competitiveness of the league.

Anon: Rangers haven't started the season against the top half of the table, all teams have been part=time ones but I suppose that's the reason they're banging in the goals. Let's judge them when they start against the full-timers.

Angela: Rangers looking really good this season so far.

David: Still concerned about the obvious gap between the better teams and the rest but maybe not so different to the men's game in many respects.

Jane Lewis
BBC Sport Scotland Senior Reporter

Lauren McGregor (Queen's Park): Made a couple of vital stops to help Queen's Park to their first win and first clean sheet of the season. Doesn’t look like her confidence have been overly knocked despite the amount of goals the top flight newcomers have conceded already.

Morgan Hay (Queen's Park): More than played her part in her side's win. She set up the winning goal with an excellent pass over the top, and did her job at the back too, but helping to shut out Spartans.

Kelly Clark (Celtic): Helped her side to a clean sheet with her usual display for calmness and organisation at the back, while celebrating a milestone of 300 appearances for Celtic.

Jess Husband (Hearts): Played a key role for Hearts. Defensively she did her job, but in attack she impressed with two goals and two assists. A great performance from the 17-year-old.

Wilma Forsblom (Glasgow City): Came into the starting line-up this weekend and was quick to grab her opportunity with her first goal of the season. Her strike got City up and running early on against Partick Thistle.

Mathilde Carstens (Celtic): Came on in the second half and scored an absolute beauty of a goal. Her superb strike from distance was quite a way to mark her first goal for Celtic.

Lizzie Arnot (Rangers): Her impressive start to this new campaign continues, with three assists.

Rio Hardy (Rangers): Was part of an attacking line-up this weekend and was in the thick of it scoring Rangers' first of the afternoon. She was instrumental going forward with two assists and was a constant threat and could have added to her early goal.

Ami Robertson (Queen's Park): Came on a sub on 60 minutes and scored the winning goal for a big win for her side. She showed great vision with her strike from 30 yards.

Katie Wilkinson (Rangers): Not for the first time the Rangers striker finds her place in the TOTW. Another hat-trick as she continues her ferocious goal scoring form. That’s now 11 goals in four games. Impressive!

Kathleen McGovern (Hibs): Hibs' fine form continues and Kathleen McGovern was once again key for them. She bagged her first hat trick for Hibs in helping them move to second spot in the SWPL table.

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Celtic boss Elena Sadiku wasn't pleased with Celtic's performance on Sunday, despite a 5-0 win over Aberdeen.

The reigning champions are third in the table after four games played this season, having won all of them.

"It's not good enough," Sadiku said of the defeat to the Dons.

"Aberdeen did pretty well defending the goal as much as possible but we were not good enough.

"We had so many chances that we didn't score, that's something we have to think about.

"We can't only think about the win, it's the performance as well. I don't know what it is but it's my responsibility to fix it."

Image source, Malcolm Mackenzie/SWPL

Queen's Park manager Craig Joyce:

"I'm massively proud of the girls.

"They've had a tough week and a tough start to the season so I'm really proud with how they played.

"The girls are a very confident bunch and they knew the first two games were going to take a bit of capacity in the legs and the brains but I think the team showed a very good belief in themselves [on Sunday].

Spartans boss Jack Beesley:

"It was a very disappointing result but I think it's a result of our performance which was unacceptable.

"We set our standards much, much higher than that. Every aspect of our game was not good enough.

"Just really poor in terms of quality on the ball and decision-making. I'm just shell-shocked, I didn't think this group had a performance level that poor in them.

"As sore as it is, as soon as we hit training we need to try our best to forget about it."

Image source, Colin Poultney/SWPL

Partick Thistle boss Brian Graham:

"I thought we played well.

"We got the ball in the final third twice, give possession away cheaply but I thought other than that we were the better side.

Glasgow City manager Leanne Ross:

"I think in quite difficult weather conditions we took control of the game.

"Going in 2-0 up at half-time was pleasing but I think we need to go and kill the game in the second half because I thought we made it difficult for ourselves but I think we deserved the three points."

Image source, Colin Poultney/SWPL

Motherwell manager Paul Brownlie:

"It was a disappointing result and performance. I didn't think we were great.

"We've got our own high performance environment so it [being part-time] can't be an excuse for us.

"We knew the task and we should have been good enough to compete and we weren't."

Hibs manager Grant Scott:

"We looked a real threat going forward and the defence and goalkeeper did their job.

"I thought this was a difficult opponent for us and when the game was close it was very difficult so I'm over the moon with the result and performance.

"We've got a front line that looks dangerous and when they're scoring goals and the back line are keeping them out it's a good recipe."

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Montrose manager Craig Feroz:

"I think it's about damage limitation and you can try and take small things from the game.

"I know it's strange because we lost heavily but I thought our goalkeeper was outstanding. I think it's the first time she's played at this level and she made some really great saves.

"We've been here before, we've been through the pain and we know the end can result in something good. We just need to put this behind us and fight to try and get some points on the board."

Rangers manager Jo Potter:

"I'm a lot happier than I was on Wednesday night.

"I still thought it took us a while to get into the game and slower than usual but we got into our rhythm in the second half.

"You've got to be happy with the nine goals."

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Dundee United boss Suzy Shepherd:

"Another extremely hard, challenging game.

"It was really frustrating the manner in which we lost the goals. We need to tidy up, we need to cut out individual errors and stop conceding back to back.

"The players just need to believe in themselves a bit more.

"We've got to be fighting for every single ball and putting bodies on the line if need be but I don't think we do that until the game is out with our reach."

Hearts assistant coach Paschalis Xanthos:

"Coming back from a very tough game, having eight new players in the squad, they performed to a very high level.

"We try to give the best account of ourselves every single week.

"We don't look to far, we take it week by week and we just need time to put all the pieces together and create the pattern that we want."

As another free-scoring weekend draws to a close, we want to know what you made of your team's performance.

Celtic and Rangers fans, how are you feeling about that Champions League tie coming up?

Let us know here, external.