CELTICM O T H E R W E L L

SCOTTISH BUILDINGSOCIETY SWPL1

SUNDAY 20THOCTOBER 2019

KICK-OFF 12PM

women

A NOTE MANAGER

FROM THE

“

“

We must continue to fight for second place as it is still

mathematically possible.

Celtic welcome Eddie Wolecki Black’s previous right-hand man to K-Park with the Lanarkshire side having just exited the Scottish Cup at the semi-final stage to Hibs.

Motherwell arrive in East Kilbride in fifth place, just four

points off of fourth placed Rangers, while Celtic are

gunning for a return to winning ways after their Scottish

Cup exit and their abandoned match against Spartans.

The two have already came face to face twice this

season with nothing separating the pair in a dogged

0-0 draw back in March, before Kirsty McLaughlin

and Kathleen McGovern’s strikes were enough to

better Katie Rice’s equaliser.

MOTHERWELLPROFILED

LAST MEETINGSWPL1: MOTHERWELL 1-2 CELTICLAST 5CELTIC - WWLLASTIRLING UNI – DWWLL

Good afternoon and welcome to K-Park for this afternoon’s return to league business.

Our last league game at Spartans saw the referee call a halt

to proceedings after 50 minutes due to an injury to one

of the Spartans players. The first half was goalless but I was

confident we were going to find a way past the home keeper

whilst remaining solid defensively. We had created several

opportunities in the opening 45 but sadly were unable

to convert those into goals.

As it stands, we still have five games remaining but now

trail to Hibs by six points. However, we must continue to fight

for second place as it is still mathematically possible.

MANAGER: DONALD JENNOW HOME GROUND: RAVENSCRAIG REGIONAL SPORTS FACILITY

We have seen an improvement this season and our consistency

has helped us hold a top two position for most of the campaign.

Sadly, we discovered Scotland will not have two teams

in the Champions League next season. Therefore the aim

for forthcoming seasons is now very simple — win the league

or watch from the sidelines.

Today’s opponents are a team I know very well. They have

settled into top flight football really well and look near

certainties to survive. Our previous two encounters have been

tightly fought affairs; the first game ended in a goalless draw

but in the final match before the break we took away a 2-1 win.

Since the restart, Motherwell have reached the Scottish Cup

semi-finals for the second year running.

As ever, thank you for your support and I hope you enjoy

the match.

Eddie Wolecki BlackManager, Celtic FC Women

After a blistering season in the Hoops which has seen her score her first goal for the club and take home the Player of the Year award, fullback Keeva Keenan celebrated even further success as she was given the nod for her first senior international appearance.

Keenan travelled back to her native Dublin for the Republic of Ireland’s Euro 2021 qualifier against Ukraine, linking up with new manager Vera Pauw before playing for the entirety of their thrilling 3-2 victory. The defender, who had been involved at youth level for Ireland, found herself in the starting eleven at the first time of asking, as Ireland maintained their 100% start to the qualifiers and pulled into second place behind Germany.

The 22-year-old’s debut came in front of a record Ireland Women’s National Team crowd of over 5,000 in Shamrock Rovers’ Tallaght Stadium in her home county of Dublin.

After two weekends without league action, Natalie Ross is raring to get back on the pitch, as she admits everyone is “buzzing to get back”.

Celtic’s game against Motherwell marks the Hoops’ return since their abandoned game against Spartans and the midfielder confessed the pause has felt long, but has only made them hungrier to get back.

“It feels longer than two weeks so I’m really looking forward to it! We’ve had a good session there and got half an hour of games so everybody’s buzzing and looking sharp,” she said.

Despite the Hoops’ trip to Edinburgh ultimately ending up void, Ross said they take confidence from how much they dominated the 50 minutes that were played.

“It was a shame what happened but we just keep focused on the next game. I thought we done alright and were on top of them so it was a shame that it got cut short,” she said.

ROSS: WE CAN’T WAIT TO GET BACK

KEEVA KEENAN CELEBRATES FULL IRELAND DEBUT

BLACK: WE USE TIME OFF WISELY

Celtic celebrated more Scotland Youth success, with a remarkable 15 players receiving call-ups to represent their country.

The Hoops have been well-represented all year in the Scotland setup across all age groups, and their success was further reinforced with the latest batch. At under-19s level, Chloe Warrington and Kathleen McGovern secured European Elite Round qualification in Poland, while a magnificent seven Academy players faced Northern Ireland, Montenegro and Italy on home turf in their UEFA qualifying round.

Furthermore, six Girls Academy players were called into action for a friendly double-header against Wales as they continue their development for both club and country.

YOUNG CELTS ENJOY MORE SCOTTISH RECOGNITION

ANSWERS: 1 Nicole Cairney | 2 Kathleen McGovern | 3 Glasgow City | 4 Fifth | 5 Kirsty McLaughlin

1 WHO SWITCHED THE GREEN AND WHITE FOR AMBER AND CLARET IN THE SUMMER? 2 WHO SCORED THE WINNER AGAINST MOTHERWELL IN THE LAST MEETING?3 OTHER THAN CELTIC AND MOTHERWELL, WHICH OTHER SWPL CLUB HAS WOLECKI BLACK MANAGED?4 WHERE ARE MOTHERWELL IN THE SWPL1 TABLE? 5 WHO SCORED AGAINST THEIR PREVIOUS CLUB IN THE LAST MEETING BETWEEN THE TWO?

QUIZ

Celtic head into the Motherwell fixture off the back of two weekends without a game and their last match being called early due to injury.

But despite frustrations at not playing, Emma Black said the side would use the time wisely to ensure they are ready to go for the last five games of the season.

“When you don’t have a game at the weekend, you can increase the load of training,” she told, shortly after Celtic’s game at Spartans was called off in the 50th minute.

“We’ve focussed a lot on our fitness this week and every player coming to training knows that it will be difficult in that sense. It’s got to be an intense week because it allows you to do extra runs or lift heavier weights in the gym and then we taper it as we approach the game against Motherwell at the end of the month.

“As far as the Spartans game, the player’s welfare obviously comes first and everyone is glad there’s no lasting damage and we wish her a speedy recovery and hope she’s back on the pitch soon. You train all week for a game but these things happen, so you take it on the chin and then start back training which we’ve done,” she said.

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NEXT MATCH

@CELTICFCWOMEN @CELTICFCWOMENCELTICFCWOMEN.CO.UK

CELTICMANAGER:

EDDIE WOLECKI BLACK

Chloe Logan 1Keeva Keenan 2

Cheryl McCulloch 4Natalie Ross 5Chloe Craig 6

Kirsty McLaughlin 7Katherine Smart 8Josephine Giard 9

Sarah Ewens 11 Rachel Donaldson 12

Kelly Clark 15Emma Black 16

Kodie Hay 17Kelsey Hodges 19

Emma Craig 24Megan Cunningham 25

Cara McBrearty 33Rachael O’Neill 40

Kathleen McGovern 63

MOTHERWELL MANAGER: DONALD JENNOW

1 Morgan Hunter2 Steph Knox2 Maxine Welsh 4 Kirstin Rolph5 Georgie Rafferty6 Katie Rice7 Lauren Doran-Barr8 Kerry Montgomery 9 Lori Gardner11 Chelsea McEachran12 Georgia Crooks15 Natasha Roberts16 Myia Arbuckle17 Anna Vincenti 18 Nicole Cairney19 Mhairi Fyfe21 Kirsty McDonald 23 Claire Adams26 Abby Callaghan 29 Sam McManus