CELTIC’S 4-1 victory over Glasgow City on Sunday was one that made headlines throughout the women’s game in Scotland because it was the first time that the 13-in-a-row champions had lost a league fixture since June 2016.

For the Hoops, who had ran City close on their two previous league meetings in this 2019 season, it was a big hurdle overcome, and came courtesy of goals from Natalie Ross, Josi Giard and a double from Sarah Ewens.

And as well as helping the team’s chances of finishing second in the league, it will also be a huge psychological boost going into next season.

Speaking to Celtic TV, captain Kelly Clark described the celebrations in the dressing-room after the game as the best she’s experienced in her time at the club, and she believes the result is a massive one for the Hoops.

“This season, whenever we’ve played Glasgow City in the league, it’s been pretty close but we’ve just never really got over that final hurdle,” Kelly Clark said.

“There have been a couple of times when we’ve said that if we’d taken our chances early on and went ahead, it would have been interesting to see how they responded. On Sunday we took our early chances and went ahead and made them have to respond rather than us having to respond.

“We took our chances, we put them behind and made them try and work for it. At the start of the second half, they came out and really pressed, but when we scored our third goal, we took the wind out of their sails a bit, and it was just such a joy to play in that game.”

Glasgow City’s unbeaten league run has been a remarkable one, confirming their current dominance in the Scottish women’s game, while last week they booked their place in the last eight of the UEFA Champions League with a dramatic penalty shoot-out win over Danish side, Brondby.

So the magnitude of Celtic’s win should not be underestimated, according to Kelly Clark.

“They’re champions for a reason and they have been for the past 13 years,” she said. “They’re a great squad, a great group of players, while they might have had a tough week in the lead-up to the game with their Champions League tie, they have those tough weeks every year.

“Before the game we talked about how it was perfect timing and how we could really take the game to them, and probably for the first time in a couple of years, we really did take it to them.

“Every single time we’ve played Glasgow City, our belief has got stronger, and for the first time I actually think that, as a squad, we did think we could beat them.

“To finally get over that hurdle is massive, mentally it is massive for us, but it is also massive mentally for them, because the first time we play them next season, they know that we’ve beat them.

“That might have been in their heads on Sunday as well, the fact that we have taken them so close on a number of occasions this year. They know that we have the potential to cause an upset and on Sunday we did.”

Celtic captain's delight after momentous win over Glasgow City