Celtic Ladies out of luck on opening day

Kayleigh Cameron

CELTIC Ladies were left bitterly disappointed on the opening day of the season as they went down 2-1 to Hamilton Academical in a game they dominated for almost the entire ninety minutes.

Hayley Cunningham had given the Hoops a first-half lead with a superbly-taken shot but in a crazy ten minute spell at the start of the second-half, Celtic conceded two goals which ultimately cost them the game.

Around twohundred fans turned out at Barrowfield to watch Celtic make their debut in the Scottish Women’s Premier League on Sunday, August 12.

And the home side started the stronger of the two teams, enjoying the majority of possession in the first twenty minutes. Full backs Ces Jones and Laura Cheshire attacked effectively from wide areas, creating a number of opportunities.

Hamilton, though, were organised and aggressive and always posed a threat. Celtic goalkeeper Nikki O’Donnell had to pull off a magnificent save on fifteen minutes when some slack defending left her one-on-one with Hamilton forward, Karen Penglase.

However, Celtic remained the dominant side and got their just reward on thirtyfive minutes when they opened the scoring.

Centre-forward and captain for the day, Becky Stokes, jinked past one defender down the right-hand side, got to the byline and fired in a superb cross which was met powerfully on the volley by Hayley Cunningham, leaving the Hamilton keeper helpless on the goal-line.

The goal – Celtic Ladies’ first ever competitive effort – was no more than they deserved and the majority of the crowd would have expected the Hoops to go on in the second-half and add to their tally.

However, despite starting the half strongly, Celtic couldn’t recapture the high tempo passing of the first half and after conceding a number of fouls in dangerous areas around the box, they were punished in the most emphatic of ways.

Penglase, who had previously been denied by O’Donnell in the Celtic goal, made no mistake with her third free kick right on the edge of the area, firing in a powerful, left-foot shot to level the scores.

And within minutes Hamilton had taken a shock 2-1 lead. Penglase evaded two challenges on the left before firing in a shot which O’Donnell did well to parry, though it rolled into the path of Kirsty McCormack who slotted home for the visitors.

The game continued frantically with Celtic desperate to claw back the deficit. With fifteen minutes to go, Becky Stokes broke free on the left but her cross narrowly evaded the head of on rushing Karen McInally.

But despite almost constant pressure, Celtic couldn’t find the equaliser their efforts deserved.

Manager John Holt was naturally disappointed with the result but was still keen to emphasise the positives from the game.

He said: “We started well and were the better team in the first half. We knocked the ball about comfortably at the back and managed to get the full backs on the ball a lot.

“From there we created chances down the wide areas and could have scored three or four in the first half.

“We have a very young side and possibly showed some inexperience against a more streetwise Hamilton side. We looked to do the right things on the ball but lacked quality in the final third.

“What was encouraging was we were missing several key players due to injury, yet still gave a reasonable account of ourselves.”

Celtic Ladies now face Forfar Farmington LFC away in the Premier League Cup next week and cannot afford to dwell on their opening day league defeat, as Head Coach Brian Delaney explained.

“After the commitment and effort throughout pre-season this was undoubtedly a disappointing result,” said Brian. “But the first game was always going to be the most difficult.

“However, everyone would like to thank the tremendous support who braved the weather to come down and cheer us on today. We hope that we can sustain that kind of support throughout the season.”