SWPL 1

Petershill Park, Glasgow

Sunday March 13, 2022

GLASGOW CITY… 2

(Chinchilla 28, Shine 45+5)

CELTIC… 1

(Wellings 63)

Celtic fought hard under difficult circumstances as a goalkeeping injury again impeded on the game plan at Petershill Park – losing 2-1 to Glasgow City.

The Hoops were trailing by two goals at the break but a first goal for Charlie Wellings’ against City and several good chances weren’t enough to grab something from the league encounter.

Brave goalkeeping from Anna Vincenti denying Chinchilla from entry into the area, and sent Celtic on the counter-attack, but cut the keeper’s game short.

Vincenti went down with a knee injury straight after the play. With a sense of déjà vu and no fit goalkeeper on the bench, it was captain Kelly Clark who had to put on the gloves as well as the unused Rachael Johnstone's yellow jersey . Tegan Bowie came off the bench as the Hoops readjusted to the circumstances.

Glasgow City opened the scoring in the 28^th minute, Caitlin Hayes looked to be fouled in the build-up but Chinchilla picked up a pass and shot the ball past Clark.

Celtic weren’t looking deterred however and came close to equalising as Lee Alexander spilled Tyler Toland’s powerful corner, but no one was able to capitalise on the opportunity.

Clark made herself bold between the sticks denying City from a corner in the 45^th minute. An extra five minutes of time was added due to the early injury.

The hosts found their second goal of the game in the last minute of added time, Clare Shine picked up a City cross and fired it into the net.

Fran Alonso made two changes at half-time bringing on Olivia Chance for Toland and Clarissa Larisey for Shen Mengyu.

Celtic opened the second-half with lots of possession and pushed forward putting pressure on the City defence.

Wellings came close in the 52^nd minute when Sarah Harkes played a clever ball to the striker deep inside the box but Alexander was there to smother the ball.

But in the 63^rd minute the visitors pulled one back, Wellings stabbed Bowie’s cross over the keeper and into the net.

The Hoops pushed on and looked very dangerous with Jacynta finding more space in the middle, all the while the entire team were conscious of protecting their last line of defence.

With five minutes to go Wellings looked like she was going to get her second of the afternoon when Larisey played a nice ball through for her – Alexander came out strong to deny an equaliser.

Celtic’s mammoth effort to overcome an unfortunate situation weren’t enough, and the game ended in a 2-1 victory for Glasgow City.

CELTIC: Vincenti (Bowie), Hayes (Olafsdottir Gros), Clark, Shorts, Craig, Toland (Chance), Harkes, Warrington (Atkinson), Jacynta, Wellings, Shen (Larisey).

SUBS: Bartle, Timoney.

Valiant battle fought as Celts lose out to Glasgow City