At the FIFA Congress on the 17th May 2024 the Palestinian FA, with support from Jordan, called for the exclusion of the Israel Football Association from FIFA. A response to the continued and relentless assault on their homeland by the Israeli government.

In the latest, in a long line of abstentions of duty, the Swiss head of football’s world governing body Gianni Infantino decided to nuzzle himself in legalities and PR claiming that, "Football should not and should never become a hostage for politics and always remain a vector for peace, a source of hope, a force of good, uniting people rather than dividing.”

Unsurprisingly, during one of the many instances of Infantino’s tenure those proclamations have lacked authority. Politics, have in fact, been a definitive factor; including the most recent Euro 2025 qualification draw. A geo-political concoction that left the Scotland women’s national team and the Scottish Football Association with the unenviable task of preparing for an international double header that an increasing majority do not want to see played.

When the draw was made in March the pairing of Scotland and Israel in Group B only came to pass as a result of a completely different, long-running situation in the Balkans. One which led to Israel being the only eligible nation of the three remaining sides that could be drawn alongside Scotland, Serbia and Slovakia in Group B2 (Kosovo and Bosnia & Herzegovina the others).

As a fan, and somebody who has gone to bat for women’s football in Scotland more than most in the last ten years, the sight of Israel in Pot Four made my heart sink.

My first SWNT international experience was against Israel at Tynecastle in 2012. A game that nobody in the current media landscape can recall. Scotland would win 8-0 but it was a game as memorable for the Palestinian flags and protests that wafted through the air as it was for the heftiness of victory. At the time it felt a novelty, a circus on the periphery of the game, but as I’ve grown older and learned more I’ve understood what those protests mean. The impact that actions in the stands had on the pitch that day.

Nearly twelve years later, and two years after I lost my shit in the stands for a Scott McTominay winner against the same opposition in the men’s game at a packed out Hampden, the same seemed likely to happen again. Tonight though, in the stands at least, that won’t be the case after the Scottish FA announced on 21st May, ten days before kick off, that the match would be contested behind closed doors. As will be the return leg in Hungary four days later.

This announcement came after those who had previously attended SWNT matches or had been members of the Scotland Supporters Club had bought their tickets. Perhaps an attempt to keep fans in but equally one that could be viewed as the delaying of the inevitable.

For many the belief is that Scotland should boycott these games. That there are things bigger than football. The How’s Your Touch Podcast this week had a considered discussion about why they will not be covering the game. It’s a decision I respect and before doors were closed one that fans could have participated in too. Tonight’s game will see a protest led by the Gaza Genocide Emergency Committee take place outside the national stadium but for the players and organisation the stakes are much higher.

I get it, and, in an attempt to unpack further my feelings, two weeks ago I travelled to Dublin as Bohemian FC hosted Palestine in a women’s international friendly, the first time a Palestinian side of any kind had played on European soil.

That game took place on the 76th anniversary of the Nakba (translated to The Catastrophe), an event that saw over 750,000 Palestinian Arabs geographically, physically and spiritually displaced and at a time, in the present, where thousands more are being so once again.

It raised tens of thousands of pounds for charities in Palestine and while there was defiance in the air, the overriding feeling was a desire for peace and for it all to be over. (If you want to understand more on my thoughts from that day you can read about it via my feature on The Atlantic Dispatch).

The next day, as I slipped between the bars of the Irish capital, sipping pints of Guinness in-between fine tuning submissions, my abiding thought was of a night that stood for something and how much modern football needs that, even if sometimes what is being stood for does not directly align with what you believe.

That pressure to make a stand is what Scotland now feels itself under.

This is not the first time in recent history that a Scotland women’s national team campaign has been impacted by a global conflict. As part of the 2023 World Cup Qualifying SWNT were required to travel to the Polish border town of Rzeszów to face Ukraine at the height of the Russian invasion.

I was there that day (the only “media” to make that trip) and much like that night in Dublin, being in Rzeszów as the Ukrainian team took to the pitch wrapped in their national flags, I felt part of an action driving towards a more tolerant and peaceful world.

There are questions to be asked around the messaging from Hampden ahead of this game, visible leadership from those with ultimate power absent as Pedro Martinéz Losa and his players are left to face the fire. However, the inaction of UEFA and FIFA have hung the SFA out to dry and its hard not to question if this had been a men’s international window whether the passivity from those who run the game would have been allowed to continue.

IF, capitals intentional, Scotland were to boycott at this late stage it would severely hinder any hopes of progress to next summer’s European Championships in Switzerland. A significant price to pay not just for players and fans but financially, as Scotland once again miss out on the benefits that qualifying for a major tournament finals would bring. The argument is that these concessions would be a small price to pay against the horrors currently occurring but sometimes the equivalencies do not always tally.

What some may be unaware of is that a boycott has already happened in the Euro 2025 Qualifying campaign. In League C Group 1 Lithuania withdrew from their matches against Belarus. A result of Belarusian involvement in the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

UEFA have since awarded both games as 3-0 wins to Belarus and fined the Lithuanian Football Federation 5,000 euros. A precedent with consequences exist although the misunderstanding around a perceived gesture by the Ireland WU17 international side, which made global news, shows the hairpin trigger nature of any such actions. The FAI later having to confirm that in this instance protest was not the aim.

Protest remains an option though and again there is a recent example to reflect upon when before kick off of the Champions League final between Barcelona and Olympique Lyonnais at San Mames in Bilbao, two accredited personnel took to the pitch as the UWCL anthem played over the stadium tannoy. A Palestinian flag with the words “Stop Genozide” placed in the foreground of the spectacle’s pre-game money shot. The assumption being that punishment is not far way.

One of the many reasons I continue to go to bat for the Scottish women’s national team is that they have never been afraid to stand for a cause. It’s perhaps at this point where many have found themselves looking for answers.

When they believed the SFA were treating them unfairly they took a stand. In the weeks following Hungary’s appointment of an anti-LGBT+ administration to their government Rachel Corsie took to the field with a rainbow band around her bicep. They took the knee for Black Lives Matter. Huddled in solidarity as the NWSL abuse revelations became more widely known and consistently provide visible role models for the next generation.

There was a suggestion from Scotland's captain that some form of solidarity may take place and this week former SWNT international Jen Beattie and Balon d’Or winner Aitana Bonmati were two of a number of prominent women’s footballers to share the AI-generated All Eyes on Rafah image that reached over forty million stories. However, at present the current members of the SWNT squad have so far been silent. Not that there is an easy answer as their actions, one way or another, will come with consequence.

Hamas’ attacks on 7th October 2023 and the Israeli deaths that came with it should not have happened, nor should the decades of conflict that preceded it. The remaining hostages should be returned but there also has to be an end to the disproportionate response by the Israeli state.

A response that has led to the deaths of tens of thousands more and the displacement from homes now built on limb-strewn rubble. The bombing of hospitals trying to heal and the killing of children who’s only crime is having been born into a war zone. The unforgivable barrage on safe zones, the politicians gleefully signing missiles and the politicians saying nothing when they claim to want our voice.

I have to believe that everyone in Israel does not feel that this is the solution but if Israel playing football as part of the current climate is truly OK then why does it not feel that way?

For any other match day the media and marketing machine would have kicked into action. The badge of the Israeli FA would be displayed on the entrance of Hampden as it is for any other game. There would be fans in the stands at a time when Scotland really fucking needs them and the Israeli FA would put up players and coaches for comment as they would for any other game. None of these things have came to pass.

The continuation of a massacre has to stop and until it does Israel cannot be allowed to continue to operate in the sporting shadows.

I sat down to write this piece in the hope of finding clarity on what I should do. On the one hand I should walk away, be distant from a game that many say shouldn’t be played. On the other, I will be one of the few with the opportunity to tell the story from the inside. Not to be complicit but to understand the impact that protests will truly bring.

Nobody with peace at heart wants this game to happen but whether you are on the inside or out, we all should know how it feels.

Leading the Line has always been a subscription service but just now that will not be the case. If you read this, and have the funds available I want to point you to the following places, promoting peace and providing support to those who’ve had their choices taken away.

Palestine for Life // Medical Aid for Palestinians // Palestinian Children’s Relief Fund

On Friday night Scotland’s winless run in competitive fixtures stretched to eight games as they claimed what could prove to be a useful point away to Serbia in Leskovac.

Focus now shifts to Hampden and the visit of Slovakia where victory has to be the aim. The visitors are competent but still developing in the women’s game, Sporting Club de Huelva striker Patrícia Hmírová is an experienced and well travelled goal threat while 24-year-old St Pölten midfielder Mária Mikolajovà has developed a knack of scoring important goals including the winner against Romania and an equaliser at home to Finland during their Nations League - League B campaign.

That 2-2 draw at home to the Finns was the pick of their League B results along with victory’s against Croatia and Romania. In a tightly contested group they would finish in the relegation play-off spot but would comfortably maintain their Tier 2 status with a 9-0 aggregate victory over Latvia allowing them to be grouped with Scotland, Serbia and Israel as the road to Switzerland continues.

As Scotland played out a 0-0 draw in Serbia the Slovaks began their Euro 2025 qualifying journey with a 2-0 victory at home to Israel; the kind of competitive victory that Scottish supporters have been waiting sixteen month for, and will hopefully be celebrating, come full time on Tuesday night.

“For me, there’s no competitive or non-competitive [games].” Scotland’s Spanish Head Coach would say ahead of Tuesday’s contest at Hampden, “We are not playing competitive games because the calendar only had us play six competitive games in the last two years, but we prepare for the games the same.”

Scotland have indeed only played six competitive fixtures since October 2022 and while there have been challenges along the way, including an extensive injury list that in the last few days has seen the names Sandy MacIver and Christy Grimshaw added to it, the sparseness of competitive action has been a result of Scotland’s current difficulty in securing the big results when it matters most under the Spaniard.

Had SWNT defeated the Republic of Ireland in their World Cup play-off then there would have been no 2023 Pinatar Cup as friendlies against Slovakia, Hungary and The Philippines would have been replaced by the next phase of competition for a major tournament spot.

Success during those inter-confederation play-offs in New Zealand would have meant summer friendlies against Northern Ireland at Dens Park and away to Finland would not have taken place, or at the very least be contested under very different circumstances, as Scotland and their supporters prepared for a big fat World Cup adventure Down Under.

A bit of what-if-ing there I know but fast forward to a challenging Nations League campaign and Scotland once again found themselves starting a new year in Spain’s southern corner for friendlies against The Philippines and Finland having been unable to get the results required to secure a shot at retaining their Nations League - League A status via the play-offs.

In competitive action, Scotland have scored just four times since the end of the 2023 World Cup Qualifying group phase; Abi Harrison’s extra-time winner against Austria, Kirsty Hanson’s goal in Sunderland, Sophie Howard’s late equaliser against Belgium at Hampden and Erin Cuthbert’s rocket in Leuven. Goals have come a bit easier in friendly games.

The clean sheet earned in Serbia courtesy of some solid defence in the closing stages was the first time opposition had drawn a blank in a competitive fixture since Austria (the 2-0 win over The Philippines at this year’s Pinatar Cup the only other occasion during the intervening period).

Where Scotland currently stand is a question to reflect on another day but results in competitive games will have a direct impact on the future direction of the women’s game in Scotland, not just on the pitch but off it too.

Finances, media coverage, attendances, commercial partnerships and the ability to showcase Scottish football on the biggest stages of a rapidly growing game will only come with success on the pitch.

Scotland’s Head Coach may be approaching his role in the same way, whether that be winning 2-1 in Tampere or losing 6-0 at home to England, watching the 45-50 players that make up his current talent pool or collating the statistics that he believes shows the progress that results can hide, but the distinction between competitive and non-competitive games could not be more clear cut. As is the case with the stakes at play.

Pedro Martinéz Losa, his coaches, the players, the SFA, the media, the fans… everyone invested in Scottish women’s football wants SWNT to succeed but the only way in which success can flourish is by turning it on in the moments that matter.

Three out of the four sides in Group B2 will progress to the next phase, for Scotland to not be one of those sides is unthinkable, the wins will come but the manner in which they do will also shape their chances of further progress, victory against Slovakia on Tuesday night would be a mighty fine place to shaping that future.

. . .

Scotland host Slovakia this Tuesday night with a 7:35pm kick off. Tickets are available here. The game is also live on BBC Alba, the BBC Sport website and iPlayer.

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In the brief pockets of time I’ve had available over the last week I’ve been trying to figure out how best to preview SWNT’s return to competitive action as they begin their Euro qualifying campaign away to Serbia in Leskovac this Friday.

I thought about form.

Scotland have not won a competitive game inside ninety minutes since a 6-0 victory over Faroe Islands in September 2022, the play-off first round victory against Austria the following month coming in extra time.

After a promising start to 2023 including impressive friendly wins against Australia and Finland, the Nations League campaign would be a reminder that Scotland are currently not ready to compete at the highest level, a relegation to League B is a chance to build new momentum.

A trip to Serbia, on paper at least, is the toughest assignment Pedro Martinéz Losa and his side will face but the Serbs have won just once in their last five games and they remained in League B after losing their Nations League play-off against Iceland, drawing at home before defeat in Kopavogur.

I thought about the respective squads.

Emma Watson and Caroline Weir are on their way back but not quite ready yet while the absence of Martha Thomas and Kirsty Hanson removes two of Scotland’s most potent attacking weapons at a time when they have started to feel thin on the ground.

Rangers’ Sarah Ewens could make her Scotland debut, anybody who has watched the women’s game over the last decade will tell you about her prowess but those same people may ask why 17-year-old teammate Mia McAulay, the latest Auchenhowie tuned youngster seemingly destined to take over the world, didn’t make the cut too?

At a time when Scotland fans are searching for excitement McAulay could have been seen as the latest symbol of an emerging generation, but perhaps that is a burden too far for one so young?

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In goals will Sandy MacIver who, if the Pinatar Cup is to be used as an indicator of who’s hot and who’s not in the mind of Martinéz Losa, seems set to be number one be affected by her continued absence from game time at club level with Manchester City. She has not a played a minute since the penalty shoot-out loss to Finland so could Lee Gibson return?

Erin Cuthbert will once again be tasked with being the talisman but just how much can Chelsea’s “Wee Scot” have left in the tank as the demands of Emma Hayes’ final season in charge start to exert a physical and mental toll although there is little doubt she will give it her all.

Across the pitch Chelsea team-mate Jelena Cankovič will be a familiar face in the opposition side but the Serb has been used to plug the gaps for the current WSL champions while Sam Kerr will face familiarity too in Bayern Munich’s Jovana Damnjanovic, the 29-year-old attacking midfielder having scored seven times as the Bavarian club march towards an unbeaten season and the Frauen Bundesliga title. A midfield battle awaits.

Away from the big names a quick scan down both squad lists show two sides starting to look for regeneration as experience mixes with the experimentation of youth.

I thought about previous meetings.

There’s been one, a 1-1 draw in 2013. A friendly in which Rachel Corsie and Jane Ross would feature and Nicola Docherty would stay on the bench as Lana Clelland scored a 90th minute equaliser.

I thought about the fact that on Friday the game will not be broadcast live on TV.

It was a relief to learn that the game will be shown on iPlayer and the BBC Sport Scotland website, the news quietly footnoted in previews with two days to spare, but there is also a frustration that a late online solution is seen as enough. Whether the game being broadcast on pay TV in Serbia has had an impact only those looking for the resolutions will know.

Imagine though a world where Steve Clarke and his team had faced blackout this close to a European qualifier? Where are the political campaigns asking for the women’s game to be seen? Posturing about support still can often amounts to vacuous words over tangible actions. The players know they will have a responsibility to galvanise a nation, there’s a reality that the conversation only sings when the team are winning but is it not now that it needs the most support? When the need to go above and beyond is required, for SWNT it always feels like just enough.

SWNT supporters will be asked to flip open laptops and cast from mobile apps to stream feeds of their national side playing a competitive game (assuming they have access to do so) but football’s gift of bringing people together has been all but taken away. No watch parties can be planned, venues unable to promote a reason to come on down and diaries where the letters SWNT have been accompanied by a big fat question mark.

Despite continued digital growth appointment programming through traditional channels still carries significant weight. When Scotland faced Finland in the Pinatar Cup my local pub happily changed the channel, by the end of that penalty shootout the regulars were locked onto the screen. Today that potential for unexpected visibility will not exist.

After thinking about all these things only one remained. None of this new.

The form, the squad, the challenges with growth and coverage, in many ways these words could have been lifted, tweaked and slotted into the timeline at any time point over these last two years.

There is a fear that 2024 will end with a feeling of deja vu but there has to be belief that Scotland can turn it around again. Relegation from League A may have been a reality check but it has also presented Scotland with an opportunity to build some much needed positive momentum.

. . .

Scotland face Serbia this Friday. The game kicks off at 5pm UK time and is live on the BBC iPlayer and the BBC Sport Scotland website before Slovakia come to Hampden next Tuesday with that one kicking off at 7:35pm.

To gain access to all our features, exclusive interviews and insight on the big issues and big games, please consider a paid £5 monthly subscription or a £50 annual subscription (£75 if you are feeling super generous as a founding member), starting with a 7-day free trial, to continue the growth of informed and unique coverage of the women’s game in Scotland.

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On the 5th March 2009 Scotland suffered a 2-0 friendly loss to France. In many ways it was an unremarkable game. A contest of its time played in front of just a few spectators and thousands of miles from home.

For a 19-year-old Rachel Corsie though it would signify the start of an international career that would see the current Scotland captain become one of the foundation stones on which the Scottish women’s national team’s most successful period would be built upon.

“I don't really like the praise and the individual attention but probably for me, there's a sense of pride, being part of that legacy.”

“When I was selected back then, I literally travelled with all my stuff, and my luggage was mainly study books.”, shares the Granite City native as we chat in a media room that overlooks the training pitches at the Oriam; the upcoming SWNT double header against Serbia and Slovakia the catalyst for our conversation.

“The only people that were watching were people's parents. Where we are today was so far away. It wasn't even part of my thoughts because I’d have never have believed it would have happened during my time playing - so it’s quite surreal when you look back over that and see how it has grown.”

As the game has grown so has the 34-year-old and with preparations for what will hopefully be a successful progression to Euro 2025 re-commencing a personal milestone awaits as participation against both Serbia and Slovakia would see Corsie make a 150th appearance for the national side.

It’s a remarkable achievement and just as the case with Marta and Brazil. Cruyff and his spellbinding turn. Leah and Arsenal. The mononym Corsie has grown to become synonymous with the Scottish women’s national team.

In an international career that has spanned fifteen years, covered major championship finals, the odd heartache, squads in transition and off field challenges in trying to change the game Corsie has emerged as one of Scottish football’s most influential figures. Her time in the dark blue, pink, white, lilac, yellow and many other coloured shirts of Scotland all taking place during a time of unprecedented growth in the women’s game.

Of course no player begins their career at the top and before Scotland came calling Corsie, much like any other young girl in the late nineties, found pursing a career in football would not be straightforward, in fact during a 2019 interview with Just Women’s Sport she joked, “at twelve years old I wanted to be an accountant.” (She did that too, successfully becoming a qualified chartered accountant all while establishing herself in the football world).

Having gone through school trials where she learned that, as a girl, she would be unable to make the team, a path to the pitch was eventually found and the teenager started to make her mark at club level, a successful two season spell at hometown club Aberdeen earning a move to Glasgow City in 2008 where she would be part of a squad that would claim a domestic treble in her first season.

A year later international recognition would come as part of the 2009 Cyprus Cup squad, making her debut against France alongside fellow defensive SWNT centurions Ifeoma Dieke, Rhonda Jones and Jen Beattie. Beattie’s retirement from international football last February means that the current Action Villa captain is the only member of that side still representing her country today.

A first goal for Scotland would come against Northern Ireland during a 3-0 friendly victory in Belfast and she would feature in near-miss qualifying campaigns for Euro 2013 and the 2015 World Cup as she began to emerge as a key figure in the Scottish squad.

Her winning goal in a 1-0 victory away to the Republic of Ireland during the 2013 campaign would be vital as Scotland pipped the Irish and Wales to a play-off spot, although heartache would come in the two-legged tie against Spain; not only because a 122nd minute Vero Boquete goal would see Scotland miss out on qualification but also for Corsie personally, forced off with an injury to her ACL. She would later hobble out to see the late drama unfold.

Having made her way back to full fitness, the 2015 World Cup qualifying campaign that followed would once again end at the play-off stage, this time at the hands of the Netherlands with Corsie starting in both legs, and having scored twice during the 9-0 group phase win over Faroe Islands at Fir Park that secured a play-off spot.

By this point, having won it all at Glasgow City, she made the move south to full-time football at Notts County before a five year spell in the USA. First at Seattle Reign, sharing a NWSL Shield winning season with fellow north-east native Kim Little, before moving to newly created franchise Utah Royals ahead of the 2018 season.

An ever present during the Sandy-based side’s inaugural season in the league an off-season loan spell to Canberra United added an Australian stamp to her footballing passport.

It would be during her time on the other side of the Atlantic that Scotland would reach a first major championship finals. Corsie scored three times during the qualifying campaign for Euro 2017 including a double as part of a 4-1 win away to (North) Macedonia.

In the Netherlands she would start all three games, including an opening 6-0 loss to England and the 1-0 victory over Spain that so nearly secured a spot in the knockout stages. A 2-1 defeat to Portugal sandwiched in-between.

Goalkeeping captain Gemma Fay retired following that tournament and with Corsie having already dabbled in wearing the armband (a 2011 Cyprus Cup victory over England particularly notable) it would be the 28-year-old given the responsibility on a full-time basis.

Speaking at the time to the SFA website Corsie said, "I am really proud and incredibly humbled, I have huge boots to fill following the retirement of Gemma Fay, who demonstrated the passion and dedication that epitomises our Scottish culture.”

"The growth of this team over recent years has been enormous, and as current players, we have the responsibility and opportunity to continue that."

Focus would shift to qualification for the 2019 World Cup and she would receive her 100th cap as Scotland came from two goals down to claim a crucial 3-2 victory away to Poland with Corsie also captaining the side that defeated Albania 2-1 on the final group stage matchday, Scotland’s spot in France the following summer has been secured.

That World Cup campaign may not have gone Scotland’s way, the collapse against Argentina still stings for all involved both on the pitch and off it, but it was Corsie that would have the honour of being the first SWNT captain to participate in a World Cup coin toss against England in Nice. An indelible mark on Scottish football history made.

Being a captain though is not just about what you can achieve on the park and Corsie has become a prominent voice in pushing for change in the women’s game, even if there have been occasions where putting her head above the parapet has left her at risk of catching some strays.

A former vice-president of the NWSL Players Association she was a key protagonist as the league’s players reached a landmark Collective Bargaining Agreement. During Scotland’s Euro 2020 opener away to Hungary Corsie would wear a rainbow armband in response to a raft of anti-LGBT legislation brought in by the Hungarian government ahead of the qualifying tie in Budapest.

Following the reckoning relating to alleged cases of sexual abuse in the NWSL Corsie would lead Scotland in mirroring the actions of clubs and nations across the globe, forming a symbolic circle before a 2-1 World Cup qualifying win over Hungary, a game in which the Scotland captain would score a 90th minute winner, producing perhaps her most enduring image in a Scotland jersey to date.

Most recently she would be the figurehead as SWNT players launched a legal claim against the Scottish Football Association, a claim that was withdrawn on the eve of the 2023 UEFA Nations League campaign and, as 17-year-old goalkeeper and SWNT youth international Ava Easdon unwittingly became the talk of the timeline, it was noticeable how quickly the Scotland captain was there to show her support.

Since that World Cup exit in 2019 on pitch success for Scotland has become hard to find as a squad and it’s coaching staff transitions around a captain who returned to the UK in January 2022, signing for Aston Villa after a difficult departure from Kansas City Current, the relocated name of the former Royals franchise.

The Euro 2021 campaign would end with three games to spare despite Scotland entering the qualifying phase as top seeds and the path to the 2023 World Cup in Australia and New Zealand would be blocked off by the Republic of Ireland at Hampden.

A winless Nations League campaign contested at the elite level has seen some eyes start to look more sharply to the future and how much experienced heads have left to give but with possible qualification for Euro 2025 still on the horizon Corsie continues to be an important figure in a Scotland squad looking to empower a new generation both on the pitch and off it.

“I honestly feel in really good shape physically, maybe the best I've been”, says the Scotland captain who is clear in her desire to continue representing her country for as long as her body and the national team coach will let her.

“I've learned so much from the mid point to now in my career because now there are so many resources. I look at what is the next level and how can I keep pushing, I think that's how you have to be as an individual, then it’s up to Pedro and the staff on selection.”

“There's a lot of people who have helped me along the way enormously and it's challenging to still be good enough but there is still that motivation in me. Keep wanting to do more. Keep pushing. That’s part of who I am.”

Rachel Corsie may not have the same balletic ability with the ball at her feet as Caroline Weir, the shimmy of Kimmy that caused a nation to swoon or the goalscoring relentlessness of Julie Fleeting but she, perhaps more than any other player, is a symbol of the journey women’s football in Scotland continues to go on.

The challenges it has faced and still faces. The successes it has had, the scars of failure and its hopes for the future.

To paraphrase an expression that the Scotland captain frequently calls upon, Rachel Corsie has spent a career trying to leave the Scottish women’s national team in a better place than it was when she made her debut as a 19-year-old fifteen years ago.

Should the stars align over the coming days and Corsie takes to the pitch in a Scotland jersey for the 150th time I hope in that moment she is celebrated and given deserved recognition for a continued and enduring service to the Scottish women’s game.

. . .

Scotland face Serbia this Friday. The game kicks off at 5pm UK time and is live on the BBC iPlayer and the BBC Sport Scotland website before Slovakia come to Hampden next Tuesday with that one kicking off at 7:35pm.

To gain access to all our features, exclusive interviews and insight on the big issues and big games, please consider a paid £5 monthly subscription or a £50 annual subscription (£75 if you are feeling super generous as a founding member), starting with a 7-day free trial, to continue the growth of informed and unique coverage of the women’s game in Scotland.

Get 7 day free trial

“My last game for Glasgow City, that was my last competitive game in the UK, the fact that it was six years ago is mad but I’m excited that I’m back.”

My conversation with Lauren McMurchie has been a long time in the making but the timing of our eventual exchange has come at a significant moment for the City legend as she prepares to make her debut for new side, Nottingham Forest, who travel to face Midlands rivals Derby County, at Pride Park this Sunday.

“I didn’t know if I was going to be able to play football professionally again given how much the game has progressed”, shares the 32-year-old, “It took three weeks for international clearance to come through. I’d mentioned it to folk that I had been working with but I started to worry that people were going to think I was a massive fibber so I’m delighted it’s finally done and I can focus on playing football at a competitive level for the first time in a long time.”

It’s fair to say that McMurchie has packed a lot into a career that still has plenty of legs left to run, taking her from childhood training sessions in Perth through success at Glasgow City, injuries (of which there were many), to founding a football community in the UAE and now the Midlands having returned to the UK from the Emirati state a few months ago.

“I pretty much grew up with Lisa Evans but our dad’s probably see each other more in the local pub than we do because we’ve both been here, there and everywhere.”, she laughs as we start our conversation reflecting on her days as a youth at St. Johnstone.

“There wasn’t just Lisa but there was Lana Clelland and Emma Mukandi, amongst others, it was a really good group of girls, it was just our Dad’s training us in the main but they must have been doing something right as people started to take a bit of notice.”

“We ended up taking part in the Gothia Cup (a massive summer youth tournament which invites youth sides from across the world to take part), and before heading over to Sweden we had a training camp in Perth where Eddie Wolecki Black, who was Glasgow City Head Coach at the time, took some of the training sessions. When we came back we ended up involved with the youth set up at City with the aim of hopefully breaking into the first team.”

Aged just 16 she would continue to live at home, heading to Glasgow every Thursday night to train with her new side’s first team before earning a place at the National Performance Centre, along with caps at U17 and U19 level for the national side, “After a two hour session at Glasgow Green I would be getting back home at half ten, eleven so on a Friday morning in school I’d end up sleeping though double French.”

“Then at the performance centre I was training day in day out at Stirling University whilst I was studying. Going from training once or twice a week training to eight or nine times. It was a massive change.”

She would establish herself as a key member of an all-conquering City squad but, like many in the women’s game, injuries would soon start to alter her career trajectory.

“I’m really passionate about injury reduction”, she shares as the conversation turns to one of women’s football’s most hotly debated topics, “I had my first ACL injury when I was 17.”

“I didn’t know anything about it until it happened and then all of a sudden it turns out that everyone has had a brush with it in some way. It’s so multi-faceted, you can do nine things out of ten right but get that one thing wrong, just one time, and that could be it.”

She would bounce back but then pick up a second ACL injury while on international duty for Scotland U19’s before being struck down for a third time at the age of just 20.

“Looking back doing three by the age of 20 was quite traumatic. It becomes more likely you will pick up an ACL injury in your other leg after your first one but I didn’t know that until it happened and then the surgeon was like, “aw, yeah that happens”. I mean what are you meant to do!?”

“After the third one happened I thought, that’s it I’m giving up on football, but while I was grinding through rehab the newest batch of players started to come into the National Performance Centre; players likes of Chloe Arthur, Megan Cunningham and Fiona Brown.”

“One day I heard Fiona had done her ACL, so me and Emily Thomson (another former SWNT international who was involved at the Performance Centre at the same time as McMurchie) went with Fiona to her scan as people who had been there and got the surgical scars.”

“She was a couple of years younger than me and I thought I’d feel really bad if I left her to rehab on her own. I was probably being a bit dramatic at the time, and eventually would have come around to it myself, but our friendship started with doing ACL rehab together, she helped me as much as I hopefully helped her, and that friendship has continued to this day.”

Reflecting on her own experiences McMurchie is cognisant of the challenges facing the players of today, at a time when the game is growing at an exponential rate, and when the physical and mental demands on female footballers have never been higher.

“As females we are all individual and so it’s difficult to pinpoint the perfect solution.”

“I do now think that maybe that jump in training, from once or twice a week to that intensity of club football and the performance school was probably a factor, especially when it came to strength and conditioning which was a totally new way of training to me. At that time I was good enough to play football but I wasn’t fit enough physically, now I’m in much better shape than I was as a teenager because I know how to look after myself.”

“It’s so, so important there is awareness because it’s now happening at a really young age and these kinds of injuries can impact on your everyday life.”

Injuries started to change how the former SWNT youth international began to view her future career, as two further knee surgeries would leave her feeling, at times, a bit part player during a trophy laden run for her club side, not that her teammates and those that run the club let her feel anything other than part of it all.

“I remember one time after one of the injury’s City had managed to get sponsorship for a Champions League trip to Serbia, I wasn’t listed to go but all the players chipped in a little bit of money so I could be there even though I couldn’t play. I did my rehab in Serbia for nine, ten days with the physio. The fact they didn’t leave me behind has always felt like a really powerful moment.”

“I’ll never forget how supported I was during that time. I don’t know why they did it, they could have easily just let me go but they always supported me and that connection I have with the club feels really special, even to the point where I was sitting in Dubai with a huge smile on my face watching them win the title on the final day last season.”

Eventually though the midfielder would decide that after a decade in orange and black it was time for a change, signing off with a goal during a final day of season victory against Hibernian.

“I had played with Glasgow City since I was 16. I was working full time, training four nights a week, playing on a Sunday and I think it became too much of a hamster wheel life. I’ve always really liked travelling and I felt in that moment my playing potential had sort of peaked so I applied for a job to teach PE in the UAE.”

After saying goodbye to her Scottish home she would arrive in the Middle East, although her assignment didn’t immediately take her to a life spent underneath the soaring skyscrapers of an Emirati sky.

“I ended up in Fujairah which is a pretty rural city in the mountains teaching at a girls only state run school. I was the only white female with the other teachers being local or from other Arab countries. It was a real culture shock but it was amazing, I loved working there and understanding how to embrace it.”

The regions large Irish population soon saw McMurchie make friends through football of a different kind, swapping the soccer ball for a Gaelic one and she would grow to love being back involved with sport.

Coupled with her work in a girls only school, the idea of setting up a women’s only club in Dubai started to take shape.

“We would see little boys playing football but they would have sisters and there was nowhere really for them to go, with Glasgow City’s ethos in mind for championing women’s and girl’s there felt like there was an opportunity there to make a difference.”

Onyx FC, the UAE’s first women only football club, was set up in 2021, a name chosen with deliberate brevity to make it easily understood across the many languages spoken in the region but also as a reference to the significance gemstones play in Arab culture. The strength, wisdom and authenticity which the jet black onyx are said to represent aligning with the principles on which the club was founded. Not that setting up a women only club in the Middle East was easy.

“It took a little bit of time”, explains McMurchie, “The football market is pretty saturated in Dubai, there were a lot of private schools with facilities that you wouldn’t believe and a lot of clubs were connected to them so it was quite difficult at the beginning.”

“Social media, word of mouth and working closely with schools to explain the benefits of having separate sessions for young girls were all important. When I was a kid I would have loved a different voice to come in to teach me, and that’s something we built upon.”

“We ended up partnering with Adidas, it wasn’t just about high performance but it was about the power of sport, and that message of female empowerment that the club was striving to spread was something they bought into. They run a lot of things in the region and it was something that we had always targeted. The Qatar World Cup was on while we were over there and we were able to run women only, 3v3 football sessions inside fan zones for all ages.”

That visibility of women’s football in a part of the world where it is only now starting to be seen was one of the reasons that the club came to be but not everything was plain sailing.

“Let’s not lie the UAE is probably a decade behind football in the UK and there is that challenge where women still don’t make those big decisions at a senior leadership level.”

“The first ever eleven-a-side league for women was set up when we were there, there was just four or five sides, and we were part of the consultation process but even within that there was still times you were banging your head against a brick wall.”

“The referee’s we had would be there to learn the game as opposed to necessarily knowing it and unless you knew somebody playing you wouldn’t have known games were happening so the on the ground marketing wasn't great or that accessible.”

“Our team was mainly made up of expats and there were rules put in place so that at least five Emirati players were on the pitch at all times to enhance national pathways, and there was a team in Abu Dhabi that was paying players, same in Al Ain, while we relied on our experience.”

“Most of the teams though were academies filled with fifteen, sixteen year old girls learning the game so that if they wanted to pursue it when they moved away they could. With us having connections in the game we were able to bring over people who had been able to make a career from football, Fiona was one of those, and having her as a visible sounding board for these aspiring players was so important.”

While breaking down barriers on the pitch was important, and can be seen as a tangible legacy of her time in the Emirati state, it was the impact that the club’s growth left off the pitch that has McMurchie smiling again.

“By the time I left we had over 300 women from 50 different nations involved in the club in some way, shape or form.”

“Sometimes it wasn't even about the football it was just about having a safe space to make friends. Dubai can be quite a hard place to do that, kind of like London people are working, working, working all the time. There are people that are still friends because they met at Onyx; that still meet up and play football together.”

“After a training session we’d go for breakfast or sometimes it would be heading to the beach. A lot of the time the sessions weren’t about football, of course some players who were involved did progress and would go on to play for teams in the league, but the idea of it was always to be open and to keep that community feel alive.”

Despite Onyx’s success, after six years, the siren call of home soon began to whisper into the latest addition to the Nottingham Forest squad’s ear.

“I had got to 31 and began to think about if I really wanted to seriously pursue a career in football then maybe I needed to head home. I don’t know if you’ve met anyone who has lived in Dubai but a lot of people say it does have a shelf life.”

“It’s amazing for a time but it is quite far away from home. I was there during COVID and I was getting to the stage in my life where I was thinking about settling down and whether staying there would be where I wanted to do that.”

“It was still one of the best decisions I had ever made but I just felt like it was time to come home. It was really sad, because we all put a lot of work into it and I’m not sure what will happen next, but I loved what we achieved with Onyx FC.”

So McMurchie would return home, sort of, as her next stop would take her to the Midlands where along with pursuing her coaching badges she would eventually sign for Northern Premier Division Nottingham Forest, currently second in the table, 12 points behind leaders Newcastle United in the third tier of the English women’s football pyramid.

“I managed to get along to a training session and had that same feeling that I had during my time at Glasgow City.”

“A good group of players and a good group of staff at a club that really values the women’s team with a vision the future. That along with the real community feel, similar to what we were trying to grow with Onyx, really appealed to me. Football wise as well, it was a chance to still play football at a good level in a really competitive league.”

She is however yet to make her debut. Against Huddersfield Town she would be an unused substitute while last week’s game at home to Halifax would be postponed meaning Sunday’s trip to Derby County provides her with the latest opportunity to start anew.

“It’s been a bit of whirlwind, but I feel ready and I’ll be really excited to take those first few steps on the pitch. It feels more real then as opposed to what you do in training. I’ll try and do as much as I can to contribute to the team on the park, and hopefully with what I have learned, off of it too.”

Her current deal runs until the end of the season and for now focus is on being back on the pitch as a player but a future on the training ground is something that the Perth native is keeping her options open for, with a return to Scotland a potential part of that next phase.

“It’s always going to be home so I will return at some point. I don’t know how soon that will be but what I do know is that I want to stay involved in football, taking in as many experiences as possible, learning as much as possible, talking to everyone.”

“I want to see what I can do playing for another year or so but I’m also going to do my B Licence and I’m an advocate for more female coaches and increasing the number of female staff involved in the game, I want to find solutions for the injuries that affected me and that continue to affect everyone.”

“At the moment I don’t exactly know what all that means but what I do know is that I want to make a difference.”

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New Tinto Park is a modest abode.

Home to Benburb FC, a side currently operating in the sixth tier of the Scottish men’s game, it’s located at the end of the residential Craigton Road. There’s a fairly modern club house that peeks towards a little metal stand while white railings, paving stones and green banks surround an artificial playing surface; functional more than flashy.

From one side you can see across Glasgow’s Southside. To your left and overlooking the houses that were built on the ground’s previous plot there can be glimpses of activity along the River Clyde. To your right a supermarket, and in the distance the top of the Bill Struth Main Stand and the Archibald Leitch designed red stone facade of Ibrox Stadium, home to Rangers Football Club.

There may only be a few hundred metres between two venues that can regularly share a match day but it’s not unfair to say that they are owned by two sides competing at different levels.

This Sunday the more familiar of the two, Ibrox, hosts a Govan-based Old Firm derby for the first time since the 31st March 2019, when New Tinto Park hosted the fixture.

It’s fair to say a lot has changed in the adjoining five year period.

Clare Gemmell led out the home side that day and I’m speaking to the former Rangers’ captain to reflect on her career as the derby takes place on Edminston Drive for the very first time following Celtic Park, albeit without fans during the pandemic, and Hampden in playing host to the Glasgow rivalry.

“Obviously you’re thinking that you’re in Govan, you’re playing for Rangers but you’re using this non-league facility when there’s Ibrox just down the road.”, she reminisces about Rangers former home.

“The club that run it were always accommodating when others might not have been but I remember one night we came in and part of the pitch had been set on fire! Somebody must have broken in and to repair it they had to just cut part of the astro out and replace it, every time you played you could see this different coloured square.”

“It’s such a significant marker to have a game like Sunday’s at Ibrox. It’s the stadium of the club.”

Gemmell retired from playing in 2021 having spent seven years at Rangers. A plaque in an upstairs room suggests that the midfielder played 135 times during that spell, she’s sure that the real number is actually higher, although there is a mutual recognition that accurate figures from the past are not always easy to obtain.

“My Granda got me into football”, like most players from her generation the path to the pitch wasn’t always straightforward, “I actually used to swim and I would just play football in the street with the boys. At the time you had to be twelve to join a girls team so it was always said to me that if I still wanted to play football once I reached that age then I could.”

“So when I got to twelve that’s exactly what I did.”

Having grown up in the town of Port Glasgow, Gemmell’s closest club would be found down the coast in Largs before a merger with another side led to the creation of Arsenal North. Arsenal North would then become the side now known as Celtic with Gemmell travelling twice a week for a year long playing stint in Perth somewhere in-between.

Two years at Celtic were followed by five successful seasons at Glasgow City before a year long break due to work commitments saw her step away from the game.

“I missed it so much that I had to get back.”, the passion for playing the game would become a recurring theme during our conversation. “So when Kevin Murphy, who was Hamilton Accies coach at the time, got in touch, I knew I wanted to get back to playing.”

“I was still going to have to miss the odd game due to work but he was understanding of that.”

In 2014, and after two years in Lanarkshire a move to Rangers where Murphy had also gone would follow.

“I was really keen to go because I knew Kevin as a coach and a person. When I first came in we were training at Toryglen and playing the games at New Tinto but people were always pushing for more.”

“After Kevin left Amy McDonald came in who eventually was able to get us into the Training Centre but at the start we only had one day a week there. We’d come in at eight at night after all the other players had left and most of us would get home late and then be up for work or uni early the next morning.”

“We sometimes struggled to have a physio, we managed to get kit but I think that made us one of the lucky ones. It was miles away from where things are now.”

Changes began to gather pace with the biggest arriving in February 2020 when it was announced that Rangers would be moving to a full-time professional model, eleven months after that contest with their city rivals but Rangers’ transition to full-time football did not come without it’s casualties.

Only Gemmell and youngster Brogan Hay were retained as the club’s hierarchy prepared for a new era, and of the Rangers’ players involved in the 2019 game none are currently with the current league leaders. Some do still ply their trade in the SWPL, most notably Scotland international Amy Muir, others drifted away, while Hay, another SWNT star, who was, and still is, a Rangers player, only missed out due to availability.

“I think people will be surprised by the number of people released from the club.”

“I’d played with all these girls for a good number of years. I respected them as people and as players and to see them effectively be moved on as the transition to becoming professional happened it was difficult, but, perhaps because I was a bit older, I understood that things move on.”

“For me it was exciting. You were part of the first professional team.”

The 2020/21 season would see Gemmell, who was also captain, add a layer of continuity as Rangers revamped their playing and coaching staff in an attempt to win major honours in the women’s game for the first time but the season would end in disappointment; Rangers finishing third as Glasgow City claimed a 14th consecutive title and Celtic the second Champions League spot.

“Before the investment we had kind of developed this habit of finishing fourth [behind Glasgow City, Hibernian and Celtic]. We could never quite push on, and even when we went professional in that first season we still only finished third.”

“There was a lot of noise because of the changes and I think a lot of expectation came with that too, but sometimes football doesn’t work like that. Some fans were asking questions because they were seeing a side finish only one place higher despite the investment. It was a process and I think it’s sometimes forgotten at the time how good Glasgow City were too.”

Her last game in football would come on the final day of that season away to City although the image of Gemmell receiving a guard of honour at the Rangers Training Centre the week prior, against a Motherwell side including a handful of her former Rangers’ teammates, has emerged as the image that landmarked the end of a 20 year playing career.

“I’d kind of already made my mind up that I was retiring at the start of the season, partly because of how fast the game was moving but also because I didn’t want to start picking up niggly injuries and for it all to just peter out.”

“I liked it at Rangers and for a number of reasons it was probably my favourite club to play with over the course of my career so I liked the idea of it ending with them. It’s never easy, so I wanted to have a plan and to go out with as much control as possible.”

Gemmell had planned to be there this Sunday, the second time Jo Potter’s side will have played at Ibrox this season following a 7-0 victory over Hibernian in October, but circumstances have meant she will be watching on from home.

For a player who still remembers that night where she and her teammates turned up to train across scorched astro the visibility that playing a game of this stature at Ibrox can provide will only have long term benefits for the future of the women’s game.

“You want to get people in the door to watch it, more folk are interested all the time. Rangers have had to move from the Training Centre to Broadwood to accommodate a growing support.”

“I’m not suggesting you’re immediately going to sell out Ibrox but the numbers keep on increasing, that 15,000 odd that Celtic had last season was unbelievable.”

“It will take time but even if it's continual small improvements it’s going to keep going up and up, but if you never give it the platform to grow, then how is it supposed to.”

Following Gemmell’s departure Rangers’ investment would continue and in 2022 a first SWPL title would be won, followed by a Sky Sports Cup victory the next season, but despite still clearly carrying a deep love for the game Gemmell has often felt the need to follow from afar.

“I’d won trophies in the past with Glasgow City but given everything that had happened it would have been nice to have done it with Rangers but football doesn’t always work like that.”

“I’ll watch games on TV and I’m lucky enough to have started doing some co-commentary work. Getting asked to watch a game of football and to talk about it, I think that’s everybody’s dream, but to just go and sit and watch, I still find it hard not to be a part of it.”

“There’s been benefits to retirement of course. You can go on holiday whenever you want, your life doesn’t revolve around the weekend but I miss football and I do miss playing. Nothing recreates that feeling it’s never went away, and even now it still hasn’t.”

Rangers host Celtic in an Old Firm derby this Sunday with a 15:10 kick off at Ibrox Stadium with the game also live on BBC Alba and iPlayer.

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The raw emotion that swept across Hampden following a humbling 6-0 defeat to England at the end of last year’s UWNL campaign may have had time to drift away but the brutal ending to that sequence contested at the elite level of the European game produced a sharpened focus at the national stadium as the first Scotland squad of 2024 was named.

“I feel the responsibility of my job and it comes with a certain level of pressure but that is the same for all nations that have the opportunity to qualify.”

I’m speaking with Scotland Head Coach Pedro Martinez Losa outside the Hampden auditorium following a broadcast briefing where the notion of pressure had also been on collective minds, “We’re aware that if we qualify for a major tournament that it will have an impact on everything but that doesn’t come with any extra pressure. That [qualification] has been the job since the very first day.”

Later this month SWNT’s now traditional trip to San Pedro del Pinatar will take place as The Philippines followed by either either Slovenia or Finland (depending on results) await and there is a sense that Martinéz Losa, who signed a contract extension until 2027 began in September last year, begins a new cycle on the back foot.

“I’ve been fortunate to have spent 15,16 years in professional football and I have had a few of these days when the feelings are not the best.”, he shares when asked about how he reflects on that England defeat, “Obviously for me I feel privileged to be in this role and I have full confidence in what we do and the standards that we work to.”

In the most recent rankings Scotland sit 16th in Europe and if qualification for the tournament in Switzerland was based on that alone then Scotland would be there, however it isn’t, and the nations challenging from underneath are continuing to make up ground.

For some fans Martinéz Losa’s confidence is replaced with questions as to whether the sum of all parts is reaching its potential. Quality undoubtedly remains and even accounting for the fact the year begins with the continuing absence of Emma Watson and Caroline Weir (the latter’s being equally felt at club level with Real Madrid) SWNT are, and should be viewed, as viable Euro 2025 participants.

So, much like at the beginning of 2023, the trip to Spain’s south-east peninsula provides the Spaniard with an opportunity to build momentum following a disappointing conclusion to the previous year.

Last year’s Pinatar adventure produced a mixed bag of results (a loss to Iceland was followed by victory over The Philippines and a draw against Wales) before a spring/summer resurgence was followed by the challenges of the Nations League with Scotland demoted to League B having earned two points from six games courtesy of draws, home and away, against Belgium.

As SWNT return to their manager’s homeland it was less wholesale change and more minor tweaks to the squad that was called up to for last December’s double header, with a smattering of returning faces across a largely unchanged squad as Martinéz Losa tries to juggle the desire for regeneration with the need for positive results going into a qualifying campaign.

Of those returning, two names in particular stood out; Leah Eddie and Jane Ross with both currently competing in the SWPL albeit at different ends of their international careers.

For Hibernian defender Eddie it was a first inclusion since a late substitute appearance against Slovakia during the 2022 Pinatar Cup. Since then she has dealt with injury and the consequences of her versatility at club level but this season she has played, almost exclusively, as a left-sided centre back, signalling a return to form for the 23-year-old with the potential to add options to the heart of a Scottish backline that sees Rachel Corsie, Sophie Howard and Jenna Clark retain their places in the squad.

“Back then [in 2022] I think it was difficult for her as a young player to reach certain levels.”, explains the Spaniard, “Character wise she is exceptional and she has always been kept in our thoughts as we waited to see if the right opportunity came along.”

“The U23’s were a good opportunity to see her again and she was one of the outstanding players. After speaking with the coaches who worked closely with her we decided to bring her back in.”

“She has a lot of attributes, athleticism and good quality on the ball but there’s still things we would like to work on with her.”

Eddie has continued her evolution into a leadership role at Hibs often taking the armband and, as was shown with her volleyed equaliser against Glasgow City in the Scottish Cup two weeks ago, has got the odd goal in her locker, an ability that 146 times capped Jane Ross certainly has as Scotland’s second highest all-time goalscorer (only Julie Fleeting has more) returns to the squad after an extensive lay off through injury.

“She’s one of the best pro players I have ever met in terms of what she does and what she brings to the team.”, enthused the Spaniard of the striker who has scored 62 times for her country. “She’s very knowledgable about the game and very tactically minded. We had a conversation with Rangers and with Jane to see if this was the right moment or not and all three parties agreed we were good to go.”

That game intelligence is something that current Rangers Head Coach Jo Potter has been seen to counsel in recent weeks. In the aftermath of her side’s 0-0 draw with Partick Thistle at the weekend it was noticeable that both she and Ross were in deep discussion as the Rothesay native stretched her limbs following a frustrating afternoon for the SWPL league leaders and while that understanding of the game will be leaned upon Ross’ main focus will be helping to address Scotland’s need for goals.

“The final third is an area where we want to improve. Our statistics in that are very good but we feel like we can still be more efficient and Jane is one of the players that can help us build on that.”, explains Martinéz Losa before sharing a variety of attacking statistics.

That Ross has been able to return to competitive football after a 500+ day absence is testament to the professionalism she has become known for and scoring eleven goals in just eight appearances since then shows that her ability to find the back of the net remains as sharp as ever.

Her age, now 34, will raise some questions, especially against a backdrop which has seen a sustained push for youth, but it is irrefutable that she remains a proven and well-respected goalscorer capable of imparting wisdom and perhaps helping to buy some time as the next generation look to bed in.

Sceptical fans need only look back to Hayley Lauder’s return and subsequent impact from the bench against Belgium as proof that quality can remain timeless, and you’ll not find a single Scotland fan (including this guy) who doesn’t want to see Ross be prolific for her country once again.

The next year is always the biggest in women’s football and it’s hard not to feel a sense of deja vu as a new cycle begins. Scotland, and Pedro Martinez Losa, have to hit the ground running with the Pinatar Cup providing the perfect platform to do so.

A pair of friendly victories and the green shoots of positive momentum before the draw for Euro 2025 qualifying in March wouldn’t just be nice but, with Scotland fans still hurting from recent results, have almost become a necessity.

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“Football didn’t really start for me until after I’d left school. I’d moved from Lanarkshire to Fife and I didn’t really know anybody so decided to join a team. I ended up at East Fife and loved it.”

The rest, you could say, is history.

I’m speaking to Liz Anderson, player/manager of third tier East Fife, the lowest ranked side remaining in this season’s Women’s Scottish Cup, ahead of Sunday’s Fourth Round tie against SWPL Heart of Midlothian.

“It was very different to what it is now.”, recalls Anderson as we begin a conversation that will preview Sunday’s tie but also covers the growth and fragility of football in the lower tiers, accessibility in sport and the importance of having a voice in the right places as more and more new eyes turn towards the women’s game, “We were a pretty decent team but it was more about the social aspect of it. A team full of people from all different walks of life, with different levels of money and ambitions. As a youngster it taught me a lot about how to make friends.”

Growing up football would always feature in the forefront of Anderson’s mind but it looked as if the hockey field would be where she would leave her sporting mark having been picked out by St. George’s, an all-girls school based in Edinburgh with a pedigree for developing talent with stick in hand, following an impressive display in an inter-schools contest.

“I was the little rough kid in amongst all these well to do people.” shares Anderson. “I always hated school and never would have went if I had the choice, but that move certainly helped change the course I was on for the better.”

“I played at district level as well, and I had the opportunity to join clubs and push on to national level but as much as I loved hockey I knew football was the thing I was always keen on.”

Having broken through at East Fife, Anderson would then spend time at local rivals Raith Rovers and current SWPL2 side Boroughmuir Thistle before an innocuous back injury, picked up during her spell at the Edinburgh side, suggested she may never be able to play again.

“I had to get surgery. The vertebrae and discs at the bottom of my back were shot. I was desperate to play. I couldn’t run, I couldn’t turn. I was losing power all the time. The only way I could sleep was by doing it in my car as it was the only place I could be comfortable. Fortunately the surgery made things immediately better but there was still a risk attached if I had decided to return to playing.”

“During that time I was still coaching at East Fife and one day I thought I’m going to have a wee go, and I’ve been kind of doing both since then really.”

Anderson’s day job sees her working locally on Active Schools programmes while in football, and when her schedule allows, she has also been involved in SWNT youth team coaching set-ups supporting the likes of Pauline Hamill, Pauline MacDonald and more recently Girls’ and Women’s Performance Manager Michael McArdle, as the Scottish FA look at new ways to shape the future of Scotland’s national side.

That involvement with the national team has seen Anderson, who holds a UEFA A Licence, experience football at the very highest level and she admits that for as long as she can stay involved (and get the time off work) she’s keen to keep on learning but it is when our conversation returns to Levenmouth, where she lives, works and plays football that the tone of our conversation becomes more focused.

“In my day job I see stats every day. Levenmouth has the highest population of kids that can’t swim because the opportunity or cost is a barrier, that’s just one example but it prevents kids from nursery all the way up to adulthood participating in sport.”

“We pride ourselves in finding ways to remove the barriers for those kids as a football club.”

“I’ve had opportunities to move into coaching in other areas but I think living in the area that the club is in, there is a big element of being involved in trying to make that difference on your own doorstep.”

“Look, I’m a mega-competitive person and I love winning and trying to find new ways to be better, and there are players at East Fife who feel that way too, but for me there is still a need for young players, in places like Levenmouth, to have football clubs. To have access to coaches who can help them reach their potential but also to find a space for those who just want to play for fun.”

“I don’t know if a club can necessarily do everything but you can see where those worlds can work together and that’s what we’re trying to do.”

The side that competes in the third-tier SWF Championship today can trace its origins back to the start of the new millenium and local couple Arthur Robertson and Margaret Wight. Both have since passed away but such was their impact a summer tournament is regularly held in their memory and it would be they who began the process of moving the then named Kirkland Ladies, under the East Fife umbrella.

“I don’t really understand how they got involved in football, I’m not even sure they liked it, but they were interested in community politics and making sure something was on offer for a pretty deprived area. They worked tirelessly to make that move happen and for the club as a whole.”

“The men’s club board at the time was probably one of the first to identify the benefit of having a women’s team and they were part of that.”

Whilst East Fife have remained stable during Anderson’s time a quick look across the rest of the region shows the fragility still at play in the Scottish women’s game with side’s from Kelty, Dunfermline, Aberdour and Kirkcaldy all having intermittent spells in and out of the game while this season has seen another wave of mid-season withdrawals across the country.

Since the 20th December 2023, Edinburgh City (a former Championship rival of East Fife), BSC Glasgow (who had competed in the tier below) and Dundee United’s U18 side all withdraw from the women’s game, at short notice and leaving whole squads of players in search of a new home.

“Sometimes when the money gets tight the first thing to go is the women’s team”, says Anderson in a frank but honest assessment of the challenges that face the game, “These are players that might have spent their entire time at one club. Don’t get me wrong there are still places where players will still be able to go (three of those affected by Edinburgh City’s demise have found their way to the Fife coast) but it’s not very often they’re all going to move together. It can effect friendships and it’s tough for anyone to go through.”

“It can feel a little bit fragile at our level, but what I will say is that where there is a youth pathway that can sustain a senior side. if a player moves away somebody from underneath can then come up into their place.”

“I’ll be honest if we hadn’t invested in the idea of a full pathway then we might not still have a team but it’s also important to recognise that a player moving because they have got into university or got a job can be something to shout about too, especially in areas of the country where that isn’t always seen as the norm.”

Anderson believes that across Fife at least, corners are starting to be turned, but one of the ways in which the 40-year-old would like to see women’s clubs protected is with a more consistent voice in the boardroom, the impact of which she has seen first hand as an Associate Director for the side currently competing in SPFL League Two, the fourth tier of the men’s game.

“At times we have probably had to have difficult conversations with the wider board at East Fife but they’ve been possible because they wanted somebody from the women’s team in the room to be able to input and share learnings. There’s no token effort. They’re genuinely interested.”

“I think if we are looking to increase the skillset within women’s football then being involved in that environment can only help. I was pretty naive about how much goes into running a club when I first joined and even at the level East Fife operate at I was blown away.”

“That’s not to say that they can’t learn things from our side too and if you are a club saying you are genuinely invested in women’s football then you need somebody with that voice in the room. It doesn’t necessarily need to be a woman just as long as the women’s set-up has a voice at that higher level.”

In recent seasons East Fife have led somewhat of a yo-yo existence and having been relegated from SWPL2 at the end of last season they currently sit fourth in the SWF Championship having won their opening four games of 2024, including a 5-0 victory over league rivals Renfrew in the previous round of the cup at the start of the year.

“At our very best we’re good enough to be an SWPL2 team but then when life, working shifts, all those other things come in its hard to build consistency and that’s without taking into account the fitness and form of players.”

“The Championship is a great league to be involved in and for me it’s about giving the girls the opportunity to be competitive and win games perhaps over where I would like to take the club to just now as maybe we aren’t quite ready for that.”

“At the start of the season we probably didn’t have the squad exactly where we wanted it to be, the back four featured me at 40, and then a 15-year-old and a 16-year-old alongside me.”

“At first team level it’s really not all about me and it’s probably the first time I’ve been happy with the entirety of the team of people working at the club.”

“Johnny (Harrow) and Stuart (Hay) have been great in terms of style of play and recruitment and then bringing in Mark (Grant) as a goalkeeper coach…we’ve never had so many girls wanting to play in goal!”

That coaching team faces their toughest challenge to date as one of the country’s full-time side’s Hearts arrive for a contest where a number of those lining up for The Fifers will never have come up against opposition the quality of Eva Olid’s side.

“We want to make it as competitive as possible but we’ve got to be realistic. I’ve been fortunate to play with and against some of the best players in Scottish football and when I’m an old lady I’ll look back on those memories fondly, even the odd annihilation, but I think we’ve got to see it as an opportunity and to enjoy it.”

“For our club it’s a big thing. All the kids are excited about seeing Hearts, I kind of wish they were just as excited about seeing us but there will be youth team national players, people you see on Sportscene every Monday night. It’s an experience thing for them and even people who maybe aren’t that into football in the local area have been asking about it.”

With more and more of Anderson’s focus going towards building the pathway at the club, a role which has also seen her recently take on the U12’s side, and with a long term objective of pushing the first team to become an established SWPL2 side, time seems to be ticking on her playing career.

“I shouldn’t really be playing now if I’m honest.” she laughs, “the plan was for me not to play this season. I had started picking up more niggly injuries and I’ve had issues with my achilles. Sometimes I watch footage back and wonder if people will end up remembering me as the person that can’t run but in my head this season will be the last although Johnny and Stuart have already started asking me about continuing to help some of the younger players.”

“Last Sunday was the first time I started on the bench and it didn’t niggle me as much as it did in the past. My head and body have pretty much made their mind up but I love football, I love East Fife and I would never want to see them struggle so we’ll see what comes next.”

East Fife host Hearts in the Women’s Scottish Cup Fourth Round with a 12:30 kick off at Bayview Stadium.

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On Sunday Spartans’ New Head Coach Jack Beesley takes his place in the dugout for the first time following his appointment as successor to the Edinburgh club’s former long-serving manager, and now CEO, Debbi McCulloch.

“When the opportunity to come back to Spartans came along it was a no brainer”, smiles Beesley as we sit down for an extended chat ahead of Sunday’s trip to face Hearts at the Oriam to cover life in football, his relationship with Spartans' and the growth of the women’s game on the pitch and on the sidelines.

“I know the club very well and have lots of really good relationships. I’m not really the type of person that maps out career paths and will more throw myself into opportunities so I was quite flattered to be approached. Ultimately it’s a results driven industry and that will determine success but I wouldn’t have come if I didn’t think I would be supported to make things happen.”

A quick look at the SWPL table, where Spartans currently occupy the relegation play-off spot, highlights that things will be required to happen quickly if the Ainslie Park side are to extend their tenure in the top flight.

“It’s a challenge that I’m relishing but I’m not naive enough to think that I was going to get head hunted by another team competing in the top flight so my past with Spartans has helped me find that path and I’m eager to repay the faith they’ve shown in me.”

Having grown up in the Borders town of Kelso, where one primary school leaned towards football and the other rugby, Beesley, who was announced as a Spartans legend on his appointment following a successful seven year playing stint at the the club, soon found himself drawn towards chasing round instead of oval balls although sports of all different shapes and sizes would dominate his early years.

“One of my earliest memories is going down to a wee club at Kelso when I was five. I remember crying and leaving after ten minutes. My mum was keen for me to stick at it so she took me down again the following week, apparently one of my friends from nursery was there and that helped me settled into it a bit.”

“Despite growing up in the Borders it wasn’t until I moved to secondary school that I dabbled in rugby and cricket. My friendship group were mostly rugby players so they tried to pull me in.”

“I think there was a period I had a football match on Friday night, rugby match on a Saturday morning, football match on a Saturday afternoon and a cricket match on a Sunday but football was always the number one, especially when I stuck at 5”8 and everyone else around me was having growth spurts!”

Along with playing he would also spend his teenage years volunteering as a coach having been picked out by local SFA Development Officers before playing spells at East of Scotland sides Kelso United and Coldstream would follow. A move to study in the capital saw him become a regular for Edinburgh University under Dougie Samuel (current Head Coach of the Spartans men’s side) before he eventually arrived at Spartans where he would go on to make 239 appearances and score 75 goals.

“We were really successful during my time there as a Spartans player. We won a few trophies, there was one season where we won every league and cup that we entered and personally the 2014/15 Scottish Cup campaign was pretty special as I scored a 90th minute winner to knock out Greenock Morton at Ainslie Park.”

Beesley would eventually return to the East of Scotland Football League with Broxburn Athletic where he would move into coaching as a player before officially hanging up his boots to take on a football development role at Ainslie Park although it would be at Hearts where he would make his next step in the world of coaching.

“Spartans had initially recruited me as a Community Coach before I became Football Development Manager and then I moved on to be a Development Officer at the SFA. Somebody at Hearts then got in contact to say they were looking for coaches for their boys section. I did that for seven or eight months and then, when they had a bit of a reshuffle, they were keen for me to move up to the girls U18’s. It was a great opportunity and we had a good bit of success too.”

Along with his role as Spartans Head Coach Beesley acts as a Development Officer for the City of Edinburgh in partnership with the Scottish FA and how to grow female participation not just on the pitch but on the sidelines is one of a number of challenges he’s faced with.

“Developing the next generation of coaches is a big challenge, those who maybe start as volunteers but then go to university and then head down a different path, especially for young female coaches.”

“I worked with an S1-S3 Edinburgh Select squad for young high school students, that gave me that early experience of working with female players. Some of that side are now currently playing at clubs in the SWPL but away from playing there are now young coaches getting paid to stay in the game.”

“I’ve got four girls working at the moment, who had initially volunteered now coming in to help run camps and sessions. I would like more female role models and coaches, in the past maybe only if you were in the very top one percentile would you maybe get a job in football whereas now, as the game grows, there are more opportunities appearing.”

“I’ve noticed the big change in the last few years where as before girls starting points would be 14 or 15 it’s now 6 or 7. If you get that opportunity to see those visible role models earlier then naturally the standard base will grow and domino effect up the chain. Similar to the same way I first came through as a young player and coach in Kelso there are now young girls at Spartans’ U10’s, Edinburgh South U10’s…who are looking up at these female role models and thinking I want to be like these players.”

Back on the pitch and come Sunday, Beesley’s focus will be on starting to turn around an SWPL campaign that has seen his new side pick up just two victories and currently sit one point from safety.

“The elephant in the room is relegation and we’ve all been very open about that. We don’t want it to be what we are talking about but at the moment we’re in that play-off spot.”

“I think the quality in the squad belies where we currently are in the table but we’ve had an honest conversation. Saying you’re better than this is one thing but we have to start proving it and back it up on the pitch and picking up points.”

“One of the things I love about coaching in the women’s game is how process orientated female players are, they will soak up as much as they can and their questions always come back to development. I know myself as a player my process would sometimes boil down to whether we had won or lost come full-time and nothing else that happened beforehand would matter. I’m not sure that’s always right.”

The growth of the women’s game in Scotland, supported by increased media coverage and sponsorship means the importance of picking up three points on a Sunday have perhaps never come with more emphasis and for Spartans to maintain their place in the top flight results will have to come and Beesley (alongside his three year old son) was an interested spectator as Glasgow City ran out 5-1 winners at Ainslie Park when the SWPL season returned following a winter break.

“I thought the team did well but it’s a hard barometer against a side who generally win every game they play, however the fact they got a goal after going 2-0 down showed a bit of resilience and watching the footage of them this season that’s definitely something I’ve noticed.”

“The squad are very competitive and keen to get results. There is a bit of fine tuning between process and honing in on that desire to win. You can’t always control that of course, but you can look at how those processes during the week can help get you to a result on the Sunday.”

“Obviously Hearts are looking to break into the top three and it will be a huge challenge but it’s also a good opportunity for the team to show where we are at. The result matters but more importantly for me it will be showing that self-belief and a bit of doggedness.”

“With the way the league splits we know we’ll have lots of opportunities against the sides around us. In some ways that makes things harder because every point becomes crucial but on the flip side it can help move you up the table quickly.”

“I’m very fortunate that I get to work in football full-time and I’d much rather come into this challenge with a club that I know will support me than be doing anything else.”

Spartans return to SWPL action this Sunday, travelling to face Hearts at Oriam with a 3pm kick off.

This will be coverage of the women’s game in Scotland that will be like nothing else you will see. That takes time, research and a few favours along the way. To gain access to all our features, exclusive interviews and insight on the big issues and big games, please consider a paid £10 monthly subscription or a £50 annual subscription (£75 if you are feeling super generous as a founding member), starting with a 7-day free trial, to continue the growth of informed and unique coverage of the women’s game in Scotland.

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“Tough, six months is a long time to be out.”

In the 85th minute of Partick Thistle’s 2-0 victory over Aberdeen last Sunday, and for the first time in 238 days, Rebecca McAllister took to the pitch as an SWPL player.

“I’m very much trying to rebuild my sharpness on the pitch just now.”, shares the midfielder as we chat in the Thistle changing room three days before her new side face Hibernian in a Sky Sports Cup Semi-Final at Petershill Park, “Thinking back to the summer I thought I had decided I was never going to play again, so to get that first one out of the way, even if it was just a few minutes, was great.”

While her journey to this point has taken a number of detours McAllister’s start in football is similar to the many who now play at the elite level of the Scottish game as kickabouts with her older brothers would lead to mum booking regular trips to mini-kickers and summer football camps.

From there she joined local side Dumbarton United aged seven, thrown in with the U11’s because that was the youngest age group the club had.

The 20-year-old’s star would continue to rise and she would move to Glasgow Girls before at twelve she would sign for Celtic making her first team debut for the Glasgow club aged just fifteen in a 3-0 victory over Stirling University.

“It was a massive moment for me and my family. I was still playing for the U19’s and development sides at the time so it was quite unexpected when I got told I would be playing with the first team.”

After seven years with the club that she has supported since childhood McAllister decided that if she was to achieve the goals that she had set herself that it would be best to go in search of a fresh challenge.

“Celtic had been professional for two seasons by the time I had left. The standards were really high and the quality of players coming in was getting better and better but I had gone through a spell where I had a lot of injuries. Lots of little things that I couldn’t really shift and I spoke to Fran (Alonso, the Celtic Head Coach at the time) to say I was looking for more game time, that I maybe needed a change of scenery.”

“Initially I went on loan to Hearts for half a season. They played quite similarly to Celtic and it was quite an easy transition in that respect.”, remembers the midfielder, “It was a very young team and going from Celtic where you are one of the more inexperienced players to Hearts where actually you’re one of the ones who had a bit more experience, especially having gone through the national team systems, was a different challenge”.

At Hearts McAllister would create her own little bit of history, becoming the first Jambo since Shelley Kerr in 2001 to wear the dark blue shirt of Scotland, coming on as a second-half substitute during a 2-1 friendly victory over Venezuela in November 2022.

Although that wouldn’t be the first time that Scotland Head Coach Pedro Martinez Losa had drafted her into his squad, with the multi-capped youth international called up as a late replacement for a World Cup qualifier away to the Faroe Islands in September 2022.

“I was pretty surprised. It was the day before the game and by chance I had woken up at 8am. I had a missed call from a number I didn’t recognise and there was a WhatsApp message, it said unknown but when I checked the name it was Pedro asking me to phone back as soon as I can.”

“He told me that he wanted me to be part of the squad and asked if I could get a flight in a few hours time. I didn’t have time to think. It was a case of up, pack and then I arrived that evening.”

“I had missed training and turned up at dinner to meet people that I had looked up to for years. To then be next to those players and to be involved in the warm ups before kick off, it was incredible.”

She didn’t take to the pitch in Torshavn, although she still has two strips from that day, with her name, number and tiny saltire and Faroese crosses stretched across the back and chest. Two months later she would be called upon again for friendlies against Panama (an U23 fixture) and Venezuela where McAllister would make her Scotland debut as a second half substitute.

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Scotland National Team on Instagram: ”🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 🧢 @rebeccamcallister_x has come off the bench to make her full Scotland debut. #SWNT”

January 19, 2024

“Even getting that second call up you don’t feel guaranteed to be in,”, by this point some of her new team-mates had started to drop in ahead of that night’s training. “It’s not like a club where you are signed and you can see the path to try and break into the team. I saw it as more of an opportunity to showcase my talent and maybe lay down a marker for the future.”

“I kinda expected to play in the Panama game with it being an U23 game but I wasn’t expecting what came next and to make my official Scotland debut it was incredible.”

She visibly beams as she reflects on that moment, and with the footballing world seemingly at her feet she returned home, but once back in Scotland and with a new year on the horizon McAllister knew something wasn’t right.

“Going away with the A Squad it’s the pinnacle. The highest point. What you always dream of as a kid growing up in Scotland. I remember coming back from that camp and it hit me what I had achieved. I was supposed to be the happiest I had ever been and I wasn’t. I thought reaching the top would fix all my problems but it didn’t.”

The tone of the topic may have changed but Partick Thistle’s newest midfield addition continues to share her story with an assurance that belies her still young years.

“For a couple of years I had been struggling a bit mentally, off the pitch as well as on it. I loved football so much and I wanted to achieve success. I told myself I’ll get to the top and everything will be fine but that’s not true. Focusing on that meant I kind of buried everything and it just kept building and building over the course of last season. It finally came to a head just after Christmas.”

“I spoke to Eva (Olid, the Hearts Head Coach and McAllister’s manager at the time) and made her aware that I wasn’t feeling great, that I was going to step back from Scotland for a bit and focus on club football. Then I got in touch with Pedro and told him the same.”

She would continue to feature for Hearts for the remainder of the 2022/23 season but happiness would continue to allude her.

“I wanted to get to the end of the season and see how I was feeling but I wasn’t enjoying it. I had to tell myself that I couldn’t keep pushing something I wasn’t enjoying. I needed a break. That was difficult because up until that point football had been my whole life.”

“The last week of the season I spoke to Eva again and said that I wasn't looking to play football, that I was going to take a break and see how it goes. Despite how I was feeling there was still something quite nice about my last game for Hearts being at Celtic Park, I’d never played there when I was with them and to get that end to my time was quite fitting.”

And that was that. For most followers of the Scottish women’s game the midfielder had dropped off the map and away from football McAllister would live a pretty normal sounding life as a 20-year-old.

“My parents were probably my biggest support during that time and my friend Alex who I’ve known since my school days. They could see that I wasn’t happy and I think they were quite relieved that I had taken a break.”

“It was hard at first, I was very deliberately trying to stay away from football and what was going on in the league. I remember my mum and dad sitting and watching the opening game of the season on Alba but I just went to a different room and did something else.”

She would get a job housekeeping at a hotel as well as studying for a degree in Mathematics part-time at the Open University which she is continuing to work towards. Spending time with friends who thought football didn’t really mean anything at all.

“It was a kind of normal life. Taking things as they come and trying not to plan too far ahead. It got to November and I had started to watch football a bit more and the itch to get back playing returned. I got in touch with Brian Graham (Head Coach at Partick Thistle) and he was happy to have me along for training. It’s great to be back in a squad environment and to feel that camaraderie again. It’s good fun.”

“I feel like I’ve grown and I’m more settled in myself. Beforehand I was maybe subconsciously playing for other people whether that was to get consistent game time for the club or getting noticed at international level.”

Having felt the need to take a step back does she think football as a whole is doing enough to support the mental well-being of players?

“I do think it is developing all the time. When I was at Hearts we had a sports psychologist. We’d do a team meeting with him once a week but because it’s the whole team there’s stuff you’re not going to say so I had 1-2-1 sessions which were good as it gave me someone to talk to.”

“It’s very difficult in sport because naturally you want to be at your best, you don’t want to give a coach a reason not to play you. Maybe if you were to admit that you weren’t at 100% or not feeling totally confident on any given day then it gives a coach that reason. Because you are always competing you’re having to shut certain things out at times so it’s about trying to get a balance.”

“I do think things are improving but there is still more that can be done.”

Having made her Thistle debut McAllister will be hoping for a second appearance at what is set to be a noisy Petershill Park for the visit of Hibernian on Sunday, although it’s not just a Sky Sports Cup Final spot her and hew new team-mates are looking for.

“We want to be in the final and we believe we can get there but we’re also shooting for the top four. We’re right in amongst it and there is no reason we can’t be there looking to get points off the top three as well but on Sunday we’re treating it as just another game. We know what we can do to impact it and then we will see what happens.”

Win, lose or draw come full time on Sunday there appears a steady contentment to the manner in which McAllister will approach the second half of the season and for the many more that are potentially still to come for the youngster.

“I’m in a good place now, playing because I enjoy it. Trying not to worry about reaching targets and ticking boxes, taking each day as it comes.”

“I wanted to achieve things, I trusted in my ability as a player and believed in myself. Looking back I prioritised that over anything else and now I realise that football isn’t the most important thing, your happiness is.”

Partick Thistle host Hibernian in the Sky Sports Cup Semi-Final this Sunday at Petershill Park with a 16:10 kick off. The game is live on BBC Alba and tickets to take your spot on the terrace can be purchased here.

This will be coverage of the women’s game in Scotland that will be like nothing else you will see. That takes time, research and a few favours along the way. To gain access to all our features, exclusive interviews and insight on the big issues and big games, please consider a paid £10 monthly subscription or a £50 annual subscription (£75 if you are feeling super generous as a founding member), starting with a 7-day free trial, to continue the growth of informed and unique coverage of the women’s game in Scotland.

Get 7 day free trial

On Sunday the SWPL returns after a winter hiatus and while most eyes will be focused on the title race, at the other end Hamilton Academical will be hoping to use their extra time victory over SWPL2 promotion chasers Kilmarnock last week in the Scottish Cup, a first competitive win of the season, as a spring board to their survival hopes.

“I wanted to run to the corner flag and kick it but I was already on a booking and didn’t want to risk getting sent off, so I just ran everywhere instead.”

It’s Wednesday morning following that game and I’m talking to Accies German striker Josephine Giard, who scored the 120th minute winner that secured a 3-2 victory at Rugby Park and a Fourth Round tie at home to holders Celtic.

“I think before the weekend that was probably the game people looked at and thought there could be an upset”, she continues, “so for us to get that first win and to lift that weight off our shoulders, we were delighted.”

A familiar face in the Scottish women’s game Giard was born in the city of Rostock that embraces the chill of the Baltic Sea on Germany’s northern coast before, aged five, her family moved to Gütersloh, a city located an hour north of Borussia Dortmund’s iconic, yellow-walled Westfalenstadion.

“When I was younger my parents always wanted me and my brother to do a sport. I initially didn’t enjoy football but then a friend at school played for an all girls team. I went along and that turned my opinion around, it probably helped that I seemed to be quite good at it too.”

“The 2011 Women’s World Cup was in Germany and it was definitely more visible. There still wasn’t much money in it but there were a few female players that everyone in Germany knew of such as Birgit Prinz and Nadine Angerer.”

“I grew up during a time when German teams would win the Women’s Champions League quite frequently and it felt like there was a future for girls in football”, she explains, a prominent Scottish twang to her natural accent.

Giard would eventually go on to play for 2. Frauen-Bundesliga side, FSV Gütersloh amassing just shy of 100 appearances before a phone call from Celtic in 2017 saw her decide to make the move to Scotland where she has remained ever since.

“I was still studying at a university back home at the time, fortunately a professor in Germany knew somebody at Strathclyde University and he was able to help set me up with finishing my degree and I’ve kept studying alongside playing football.”

While degrees in sport and business related fields are common place in the women’s game Giard’s specialises in an area with potential to make a far bigger impact on the world.

“I’m currently undertaking a PhD at Heriot-Watt University working on the analysis of metagenomic sequencing data for the discovery of novel antimicrobials.”

Impressed at the accumulation of words but unsure exactly what they mean I ask the striker to break down it in terms more suited to somebody who bombed out of every science subject possible during their own academic years.

Like all good scientists a relatable explanation is quick to come.

“One of the biggest challenges we have in the world at the moment is that the bacterias, things that make us sick, are continuing to develop resistances to the antibiotics that we use to treat illnesses so we need to keep finding new ones.”

“The World Health Organisation have said that by 2050 we could have something like ten million deaths per year because of antibiotic resistance. It’s potentially a huge problem so instead of looking at the bacteria itself I am currently exploring the DNA inside different unexplored bacterias with the hope of finding something new.”

“Lots of people are developing new things every day and I find that really exciting.”

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Hamilton Academical WFC on Instagram: “Full Time | Kilmarnock 2-3 Accies AET A dramatic last minute @josephinegiard header wins things at the death after Accies had twice led in the 90. @masonblythclark put is 1 up after some near interplay with Giard before Dionne Brown equalised following a speculative cross. @morgangraham0707 got her 1st Accies goal following a @shelleyycampbell corner before Abby Robinson scored with the last kick of the 5 minutes injury time added on. #DerBomber sent us through in the dying moments following a @kirstiemac10 free kick straight onto the Germans head and spark #Scenes. 📽️ Lynn Strain Reaction to follow: #Phew 😂”

January 11, 2024

After a quick laugh about the absurdity of going from the surfaces of the SWPL to trying to save the world the 27-year-old explains that while she never expected to be working on something with such far-reaching implications, her path into science was no mistake.

“I’m diabetic, which means I need to take insulin because my body is not producing it sufficiently any more. It’s always been a dream to work towards finding treatment and a cure for diabetes. My degree didn’t specifically specialise in that but it’s something I’m always thinking about.”

Giard was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes just before her 10th birthday and currently one in every sixteen people in the UK have diabetes either knowingly, or unknowingly. Former Hibernian, Celtic and current Larne loanee Scott Allan is, along with Giard, one of a number of professional footballers playing with the condition today.

“I just need to prepare for a game a bit further in advance. I need to think about what I eat and how that impacts my blood sugar as I need it to be steady during a game to help perform at my best level.”

“As long as people are aware of it, it doesn’t make too much of a difference as in the end it’s my body that is going to be reacting to it and I’m the person that knows it best. It would be nice to have an expert to talk to about it in a football context but at the end of the day, people ask me are you OK to play and if I am I say yeah.”

For Hamilton Accies Head Coach Robert Watson, a fit and firing Giard will be key to his side’s SWPL survival hopes as they continue their season with the visit of Hibernian this Sunday.

The Lanarkshire side currently sit bottom of the table, winless and with just three points from the opening sixteen games, six behind 11th placed Spartans who currently occupy the SWPL relegation play-off spot, but for the striker the gap is far from insurmountable.

“I’ll be honest it can be frustrating always being in and around the bottom of the table, just because we’re in that position it doesn’t mean we aren’t putting in the same effort.” shares the German, who left Celtic and signed for Accies in 2020, securing promotion to the SWPL as SWPL2 runners-up that same season.

“Getting that first league win will be important for everyone at the club.”

“It was always going to be a bumpy start with the new manager and with a lot of the new players coming in being so young. It took us a while to find the right shape and formula but I think in December we started to find a bit of something,”

“We only have Glasgow City and Hibernian left to play from the top six and after that we’ll be playing bottom six sides for the rest of the season. For us that’s where we hope we can really make up ground on the sides above us.”

“I’m not going to lie, it was difficult to adjust after being promoted because I had always played in teams competing at the top but it’s exciting to see how close I am to the professional level. Maybe if things had gone differently I would still be playing higher up the table but now I play because I love it.”

Of the ten goals Hamilton have scored in the league this season, Giard has six, and she was also the team’s leading scorer last term as they secured their SWPL spot with a play-off win over SWPL2 runners-up Gartcairn and the striker is relishing the challenge of leading the line as her side hope to begin their climb to safety.

“As long as we win I’m not fussed about scoring but those games where we don’t really get an opportunity they frustrate me the most as I wonder if things could have gone differently if I’d had that one chance.”

“Overall though I look at it more as wanting to take the pressure of other players, if they think I’ll score that might help them focus on their part of the game. Now I’m one of the older players I get to help others develop and see where they move onto. I’m quite happy with how my football is going at the moment.”

While SWPL survival and beating her previous season’s goal tally are stated goals for the forward she still has ambitions off the pitch to fulfil in the months to come where marrying her German instincts with the approach of natives in her adopted homeland will hopefully reap rewards.

“I feel like the Scottish way of life is a lot more relaxed, sometimes Germans can be serious about everything. I see that in myself still, the German side of me looks at a problem one way then I look at it with a Scottish lens and it can help find a new solution.”

“At the moment I want to submit my thesis. If I can successfully defend that then I’ll be able to call myself Doctor which is pretty cool and I’m also looking for a job in the field.”

Whatever happens come the end of the season Giard, like most football fans in Scotland and across Europe, will have her eyes firmly fixated on Germany this summer.

“Germany hosted the World Cup in 2006 but I was bit too young to really understand it and I had only just started playing football then. I’m going back home for it and managed to get a ticket for one of the last sixteen games.”

“This will be the last tournament for ages to be held in just one country. We’ve got big stadiums and a well known fan culture so I think it’s going to be a great event.”

Having spent six years living in Scotland, scoring goals, becoming an SWPL staple and making it her home is there any chance that she will have any split loyalties come kick off, as Germany take on Scotland in the tournament’s opening game on the 14th of June, “No”, she laughs, “that opening game it will definitely be Germany all the way.”

The SWPL returns this Sunday 14th January and Hamilton Academical host Hibernian at New Douglas Park with a 4pm kick off in Lanarkshire.

This will be coverage of the women’s game in Scotland that will be like nothing else you will see. That takes time, research and a few favours along the way. To gain access to all our features, exclusive interviews and insight on the big issues and big games, please consider a paid £10 monthly subscription or a £50 annual subscription (£75 if you are feeling super generous as a founding member), starting with a 7-day free trial, to continue the growth of informed and unique coverage of the women’s game in Scotland.

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Walking across the main concourse of Edinburgh’s Waverley Station in the distance I spot Hamilton Academical midfielder Kirstie Macintosh heading towards the platforms I have just disembarked from.

Later that afternoon a first competitive win of the season for Robert Watson’s side would finally come. A 3-2 extra-time victory away to SWPL2 promotion chasers Kilmarnock courtesy of a 120th minute Josi Giard goal amongst the final throes of Women’s Scottish Cup Third Round day.

The Glasgow I left on Sunday morning was white, the tops of buildings clouded by a pea-souper so thick that if you were to stick a spoon in and attempt to stir it would remain firmly upright.

The environmental stour at Petershill Park was so dense that it would cause a delay to kick-off in a game where Partick Thistle would eventually come from behind to beat league rivals Motherwell 4-2. Glasgow City would score ten as they defeated Championship leaders Rossvale in the match that followed immediately after.

As the low, rattling clickity-clack of wheels on track moved from east to west the white fields that surrounded Scotland’s biggest city were soon replaced by Lothian and finally Edinburghian greens but a to-the-bone chill prevailed as my afternoon continued.

The first weekend of a new year of Scottish women’s football action and the Third Round of a competition where sides from the SWPL enter, mingling with those very much still playing for the love of the game.

Over the course of the preceding week I had spent time speaking to some of those players, managers, everywomen who were setting out to establish Sunday as a landmark for future reference not just for them, but for the club’s they have made their footballing homes.

Inverness Caledonian Thistle’s Karen Mason and Kirsty Deans’ may have looked on at their final 12-0 reverse with a little wince, football at it’s heart remains a competitive game, but for the next generation and club record 1,031 in attendance at the Caledonian Stadium a rare chance to see international calibre footballers up close and personal. Rangers coming to the Highlands was not to be missed even if it meant chasing the occasional shadow.

For Clare Docherty, Ayr United’s Head of Women’s and Girls Academy the shock was not destined to come either. Cup holders Celtic winning 7-0 at Townhead Park, but to walk hand in hand onto a pitch surrounded by hundreds; with the daughters whose birth that she once thought would have led to her retiring permanently, a memory now exists that she can hold onto forever.

And for Sammy Hyett, Edinburgh Caledonia’s founder and chair, one last hurrah against one of the countries very best, and city rivals Hearts, in her final season as a player. Even in the aftermath of a 9-0 defeat I hope she is afforded the time to reflect how women’s football in Scotland has come a long way since she scraped knees across gravel car parks in Aberdonian hand-me-downs.

There were of course many others and in many respects, the Third Round of the Women’s Scottish Cup was always going to be less about the pursuit of an upset, and more about the stories rarely told being given a platform to be shared.

That’s not to say that magic still shouldn’t be allowed to try and cast an intoxicating spell. Fifth tier Glenrothes Strollers going 1-0 up at home to SWPL2 Gartcairn, one of a number to offer a brief sleight of hand across the 14 ties to be played. The Fife side would eventually fall to a 3-1 defeat.

While the expectations of record crowds in Inverness and Cumnock offered a more camera friendly appeal, I headed to Meadowbank for a pair of ties with potential glimmers of that old magic.

In the day’s opener, SWPL2 Boroughmuir Thistle welcomed top-flight Aberdeen, who for forty-five minutes were made to look like they hadn't arrived in town from the division above.

Boroughmuir are, if social media self-descriptors are to believed, the largest girls and women’s club in Scotland, as synonymous with the colour purple as their visitors are with red. Push through the brutalist turnstiles of steel and in it’s place you will find warmth and the offer of a scarf striped with the same purple and white pattern that would be snuggled around the faces of ball girls given one of the most important jobs of the day.

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Magic can come in victory but it can also come by being as close to the action as you’re allowed. For a while it looked like the Boroughmuir ball girls might get both.

Thistle take the lead, Dundee United loanee Emily Arthur riding tackles with a flare similar to a sorcerer casting spells with their wand, before slotting the ball past Jenni Currie, one of a trio of Aberdeen’s winter signings taking to the pitch today.

It’s not undeserved and at half time the first syllables of a cup abracadabra gently begin to whisper but Aberdeen would quickly find the antidote. Bayley Hutchison, Hannah Innes and Hannah Stewart securing a 3-1 victory thanks to a period of second half domination.

A couple of hours later and the next wave of enchantment was poised and ready to be wash over SWPL2 St. Johnstone as they entered the fray against Hibernian. The eight time winners however, supported by a rambunctiousness noise of chanting, quickly and decisively ensured that St. Johnstone would barely get to feel the spray, opening the scoring with just four minutes played.

Michaela McAlonie, who at times must have felt her limbs and joints have been cursed over the last two seasons helping herself to four goals including a free kick hit with such ferocity that it conjured a brand of magic all of its own.

10-0 would be the final score on a day where not a single shock would come.

But today was never going to be about the upsets for sides who will return to the undercard when the SWPL returns to action next Sunday.

Reality will dictate that familiar challenges around availability of players, of pitches, of referees, of everything will soon re-emerge but, for one day at least, the magic did not come in defeat, but instead by showing that, with support, what could be done.

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On the 27th May 2018 Ayr United travelled to face Blackburn United in the First Round of the Women’s Scottish Cup. What looked to be a fairly unremarkable tie on paper became one of my most talked about football memories, the home side eventually running out 10-9 victors in the 120th minute following scoreline of 6-6 and 8-8 at full time and half time of extra time respectively.

“We were robbed!”, jokes Clare Docherty when I first bring up the game, who was playing for the Ayrshire side that day and now marries her role on the pitch with a significant one away from it as Head of the Women’s and Girls Academy for the Championship club.

“We were still playing a summer season then so it was a lovely day. To be honest, thinking back, we underestimated them. They were a feeder for a couple of sides at the time and I didn’t really know any of their players.”

“I scored, there’s a photo of that, but in general I’ve got a terrible memory for the details of games. I just remember it going back and forward incessantly. It was 6-6 at full time and then level halfway through extra time. There were bodies lying everywhere, but penalties never came as Blackburn scored in the very last minute.”

“I remember sitting in the dressing room afterwards and thinking that was ours for the taking. Looking back at some of the photos from that day the team has changed so much.”

I ask Docherty if she is expecting the same scoreline on Sunday, “You never know there might be a cup upset!". I sense her tongue may have ever so slightly been in her cheek as she gives her reply.

We’re talking as Ayr United prepare to welcome Scottish Cup holders Celtic to Townhead Park for their Third Round tie, and while the offer to move the game to Somerset Park, the home of their male counterparts, for Clare and her teammates the decision to play the game in Cumnock, which the third-tier side have grown to call home, was a no-brainer.

“It’s been a collective choice to keep the game at our home ground”, explains the 2023 Championship Player of the Year having been given the honour last month at the end of year SWF Awards. “Any advantage to us we have to take it. If we play at Somerset it could have felt like an away game for us plus that big grass park might have suited Celtic more.”

“We’ve got a great relationship and a lot of memories at Cumnock so why change the habit of a lifetime. We’re really happy the game is going to be there.”

Docherty has been at United for over six years, and joined following the birth of her second child Chloe, “I had hung up my boots when somebody asked me to come play. I had came from playing in the top flight and being honest I thought the standard was terrible and the professionalism needed some work.”

“After a few sessions they asked me to stay and sign. I was a bit reluctant but the opportunity to come and raise the standards helped make my mind up.”

“Hand on heart, it’s the nicest club I have been at and that’s never changed. The camaraderie and team spirit is unbelievable, the people I work with are not just teammates but really good friends too.”

Drawing current holders Celtic, who saw Head Coach Fran Alonso depart for NWSL side Houston Dash during the winter break, brings an added spotlight to the club that the club’s leading scorer this season is relishing, “We had popped the link for the draw in the group chat so were all watching it together. It’s funny because the top three sides in our league have ended up facing the top three in the SWPL (with Championship leaders Rossvale hosting Glasgow City and SWPL leaders Rangers travelling north to face second placed Inverness Caledonian Thistle).

“We actually really wanted Kilmarnock with the rivalry between the two clubs. I think that would have been a really exciting draw for everybody.”

“With Celtic we’re not afraid of it. We don’t think we’re going to win but we’re not going to let them run over the top of us and there’s a little bit of belief that maybe we can do something.”

As well as having the opportunity to host the holders Docherty could also line up opposite some familiar faces from her footballing past having played for the Glasgow side prior to leaving in 2016 following the birth of her first child.

“They’re full-time professionals, it’s a completely different set up.”, she continues, “When I was there it was still good but the difference now is that they can recruit a much higher calibre of player but you still have the likes of Kelly Clark and Chloe Craig who were both there when I was.”

“I played alongside Natalie Ross too in the national team youth set ups too. We got to travel to other countries during that time and shared so many experiences so it will be nice to see her.”

“It’s difficult to tell our players what to expect other than they will just be a really strong side and we’ve just got to go out there and play our game.”

When the whistle blows at 2pm on Sunday Docherty’s focus will be fixed firmly on the pitch but having been appointed Head of the Women’s and Girl’s Academy in August 2021 she is also a key figure in trying to establish the Ayrshire side as the place to be for young footballers in the region.

“I’ve tried my best to overhaul everything and the support we get from the club now is unbelievable. Within a couple of months of being in role the chairman sat down with me and agreed to pretty much everything.”

Events such as joint press conferences and kit launches for the senior sides have been part of her overhaul while the whole club from men’s first team, to women’s first team to all the academy sides, both boys and girls, now train and play in the same branded kit, “Silly wee things like that are a big deal. It’s not that the club weren’t willing to do it before, it’s just that nobody had asked the question.”

Her plans for growth, supported by key figures within the club, appears to be working and for the first time ever she was forced to implement a waiting list such has been the inundation from parents wanting their children to join the club.

“I was genuinely gutted that I had to start that as I want to let everybody in. If a young player finds their name on that list though I’m still committed to finding a way to help them play the game, that’s so, so important.”

“When I was growing up in Ardrossan there was none of this, I was always travelling to play, but now even the local non-league side Ardrossan Winton Rovers have a girls academy. That benefits everybody and now I can point parents in the direction of other clubs in their local area with the knowledge that if a space becomes available they are a phone call away.”

“It breaks my heart they can’t all be here but you have to keep them playing.”

As well as ensuring young players get minutes on the pitch Docherty wants to ensure they savour the occasion of having some of Scotland’s very best on their doorstep.

“We’ve got our whole academy coming on Sunday and every age group is going to have a role whether it be as mascots, ball girls or something else. For them to have a great experience on Sunday, that is what will make me really happy.”

“We’ve already sold over 300 tickets and that’s without including friends, family and people from the wider club. It’s gonig to be busy, they’ll all be shouting for Ayr.”

Two of the mascots on Sunday will be Docherty’s children Ellie (who also plays within the academy and shares the same number ten jersey as her mum) and Chloe.

“There’s only a year between them. My youngest Chloe, I might need to put a strap on her on Sunday, she has big main character energy”, says Docherty as she lets out an affectionate laugh with a tone that only a mother can, “She’ll love it but she’ll think everyone is there to see her while Ellie is maybe a wee bit more sensible and a bit quieter.”

“The two of them will be holding my hand as the teams come out. I don’t know if they’ll quite understand it until they’re older but it’s a big deal for the three of us. After having Chloe I was all but retired, being able to experience this with them both on Sunday is amazing.”

Win lose or draw Docherty continues to have big ambitions for the remainder of the season and beyond.

“Our U14s are going to be entering the new National Performance League structure for the first time, and our U10s are so good, which I know sounds really daft because of how young they are, but that pushes me to continue building that pathway.”

“We’ve potentially got a Championship Cup Final to look forward to and we’re sitting third just now in the league. It’s really tight at the top but we don’t know how the season is going to go. You don’t playing to sit at the bottom of the table and so you’re obviously competing to try and be towards the top, whether that means promotion we’ll find out come the end of the season.”

“Sometimes I feel like their mother but I’m so proud of the team and whatever the result Sunday is going to be special. If we get beat we’re not going to go home crying and if somehow we win it’ll be some party.”

Ayr United host Celtic in the Women’s Scottish Cup Third Round this Sunday with a 2pm kick off at Townhead Park, Cumnock.

This will be coverage of the women’s game in Scotland that will be like nothing else you will see. That takes time, research and a few favours along the way. To gain access to all our features, exclusive interviews and insight on the big issues and big games, please consider a paid £10 monthly subscription or a £50 annual subscription (£75 if you are feeling super generous as a founding member), starting with a 7-day free trial, to continue the growth of informed and unique coverage of the women’s game in Scotland.

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Third tier Inverness Caledonian Thistle welcome undefeated SWPL leaders Rangers to the Caledonian Stadium as the most northerly side remaining in this season’s Women’s Scottish Cup go in search of an unlikely Third Round shock.

“I think I was working when the draw was being made.”, shares captain Kirsty Deans who I’m speaking to ahead of Sunday’s tie, “The first I knew was when I saw messages flying through the group chat”.

“There was actually a bit of a shock on my part,” continues the 32-year-old who’s career in football began has taken in spells at Inverness City and Forfar Farmington before she returned to the Highland capital, “It wasn’t long after I had taken a group of 70 kids down to see Scotland play Netherlands at Hampden in the Nations League.

“Half the Rangers team were in that squad and I found myself thinking how I’ll be going from watching them at the national stadium to soon chasing them around the Caley Park!”.

“I won’t lie, there was a bit of disbelief and a wee bit of dread but once I thought about it I realised there’ll be no expectations and it’s going to be an occasion for us to enjoy as much as we can.”

The Jags booked their third round spot with an 8-0 win at home to Drumchapel United and come into their first game after the winter break second in the SWF Championship table behind leaders Rossvale, with long-serving coach Karen Mason continuing to push standards for the Highland side, “This is probably the best I’ve ever seen the club in terms of playing style and Karen (Mason) our manager puts in a massive amount of work. We’re sitting second going into the second half of the season and we’ve got the belief we can push on in 2024.”

That victory over Drumchapel United took place at the Millburn Academy, but on Sunday ICT return to the Caledonian Stadium to welcome a side looking for a first ever Scottish Cup triumph after an unbeaten first half of the season, “The only down side is that it’s an enormous park compared with what we usually play on. That might favour them a bit”

“For me, and for Inverness, this is the first time we will have played a full-time professional team. No-one in our league is anywhere near that level just now and as much as we all love an underdog story the expectation on Sunday will be less on getting a win and more on giving as good an account of ourselves as possible.”

One of the players that Deans knows well in the opposing squad is Scotland international Rachel McLauchlan, the Rangers full-back having started her career at Inverness City before spells at Aberdeen, Hibernian, Yeovil Town and Glasgow City led to the current SWPL leaders, “I hope she’s fit to play. We still keep in touch and it’s brilliant that she was involved in the squad for the game against The Netherlands when we were there.”

“It’s nice when people come up here as you don’t get to see international level players in Inverness very often; especially for the younger girls, getting to see a full-time professional team such as Rangers.”

“Rachel’s a success story that people can hear and read about and for people to hopefully see her here in Inverness on Sunday that’s really nice. There will be a lot of the younger players who will know Rachel and her family from over the Kessock Bridge.”

Growth in women’s sport is not only being felt in the world of football for the Inverness captain but also on the shinty pitch, where Deans’ has represented Scotland at international level and has previously held a director’s role at the Camanachd Association, which oversees the governances of the Highlands’s game, between 2020 and 2023.

“I got into shinty a couple of years before football. Being from Kingussie, who are one of Scotland’s most successful sides it’s obviously a pretty big thing.” says Deans who turns out for the Badenoch and Strathspey Ladies side based in her hometown, “Women’s football was always bigger and ballooned off the back of the success of the Euros and World Cup but the women’s game in shinty has grown massively in parallel.”

“In 2018 the Camanachd Cup Final, shinty’s Scottish Cup equivalent, was live on BBC Alba for the first time and it’s been on ever since. Much like it is inspiring for girls to see Rangers on Sunday, it’s also inspiring for the next generation of shinty players to see the women’s game now represented on TV.”

As a player in both sports, shinty also helped Deans to find her voice as she made her way in the world of football and she takes to the pitch on Sunday wearing the captain’s armband, “I tend to talk a lot on the park, that is something that I do a lot in shinty and I’ve taken that into football where in my early years when I was probably a bit quieter.”

“Shinty helped me get confidence to find my communication style and Ive been fortunate to able to build into that leadership role as a captain, which is less to do with my ability and more to do with how I can organise and encourage people. At least that’s what I think!”

Back on the football pitch she remains realistic about her ambitions for Sunday’s visit of the Glasgow giants, “We want to make it as hard as possible for Rangers to break us down. Win the little 50/50’s where we can and if we get a chance, get forward and see what happens. If nothing else it will be a good occasion to come back to after the end of year festivities.”

“Regardless of the result on Sunday it’s about enjoying the experience, for us and for those who come along to the Caledonian Stadium too.”

Inverness Caledonian Thistle host Rangers at the Caledonian Stadium this Sunday in the Women’s Scottish Cup Third Round with a 1pm kick off.

This will be coverage of the women’s game in Scotland that will be like nothing else you will see. That takes time, research and a few favours along the way. To gain access to all our features, exclusive interviews and insight on the big issues and big games, please consider a paid £10 monthly subscription or a £50 annual subscription (£75 if you are feeling super generous as a founding member), starting with a 7-day free trial, to continue the growth of informed and unique coverage of the women’s game in Scotland.

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On Sunday SWF League One promotion chasers Edinburgh Caledonia make the short trip across Scotland’s capital to face SWPL Hearts in the Third Round of the Women’s Scottish Cup.

Amongst the players aiming to take to the pitch at Oriam is Sammy Hyett with the club’s founder, captain and current chairperson set to hang up her boots at the end of the season.

“My knees aren’t as forgiving as they once were so I’m calling it a day at the end of the season”, said the Aberdonian as we settled in for a chat far longer than either of us had anticipated, “but the opportunity we have on Sunday (to play against Hearts) is a nice checkpoint in these last six months.”

Hyett’s passion for football, which comes through loud and clear, started as a four-year-old alongside identical twin Rachael; football the only choice for the pair with no spaces available on their local gymnastics team.

“My mum told me we had to keep going along, I would throw a huff but my sister was really enjoying it so we kept going, we got quite good at it and then took it from there.” Women’s football is never quite as easy as childhood dreams make them out to be and despite the growing presence of the game in Scotland today like most of her generation Hyett has her own tales to share.

“I remember we would train in the gravel car parks outside of Pittodrie Stadium while the boys would go on the pitch. We used to wear the old Atlantic Telecom kit at the time and I was given No. 16, Rachid Belabed’s number (the Moroccan had a fleeting spell in the north-east in the early 2000’s). The kit was enormous, they were hand-me-downs and playing on gravel your knees would be a wreck.”

Having been involved in national team training camps with future internationals such as Suzanne Grant (now Winters) and Joelle Murray she would eventually move to study at Heriot Watt University, on the same grounds where the now sprawling Oriam campus sits and where, in a nod to Hyatt’s past, Edinburgh Caledonia will face Hearts on Sunday.

“I picked the university before I picked my course, because of football and because the Hearts set-up was there.”, although there will be no conflict on interest when her side face the Jambos as she’s quick to add Hearts’ are not her team before continuing, “I turned up at the freshers fair for the football and there were over a hundred people but I was the only girl. I was going to be allowed to train with them but even if I was better I wasn’t going to be allowed to play so the next year I set up a team, got it affiliated with the university and it kept on going from there.”

Fast forward to 2012 and Hyett was on the founders trail once again as the foundations of the club we are discussing began to take shape, although an original affiliation with a men’s side claiming to be one of the oldest in the world never felt quite right, “At the time I was injured but I had no real interest in coaching, but I knew that I wanted to be able to watch so setting up a club seemed a good way to do that but it wasn’t long before I realised we would be stronger on our own and with a few rivals from other teams we detached, some of which are still involved today.”

“The name was important too”, she continues, “it represents the different cultures and nationalities in the team and that has continued to this day. Edinburgh Caledonia came to be in 2013 and it has led to a club and a badge that means so much to so many people. I’ve been at every game since and I’d like to think we have gone from strength to strength.”

Last season long-serving manager Maggie Wilson, who at the Scotland v England Nations League clash in December received a Scotland cap in recognition for her service as one of the early pioneers of the national team, stepped down to be succeeded by Euan Cole.

“Maggie was great, she was everything that the team needed, and really helped push us on but it came to the time where she wanted to look after her health. Needing a new a coach I asked a friend to come down to help out at some of the training sessions, that friend is Euan Cole, and after a bit of cajoling he agreed to take it on.”

Wilson’s influence on the pitch has been lasting but a story away from it that really shines a light on the impact the former Scotland international had, “The core of the team, we’ve become like family.”, reflects Hyett, “At Christmas just past about fifteen of us older players sat around Maggie’s table for Christmas Dinner and she put on a massive feast. That doesn’t happen at every club.”

Fortunately, Cole has picked up where Wilson left off and Caley currently sit second in the fourth tier Scottish Women’s League One, five points behind leaders Forfar Farmington but with two games in hand. “Each season is a new challenge” explains Hyett, “You don’t know who you are going to be coming up against, you don’t know the opposition. There’s been a lot of changes so a lot of time you start the season with a clean slate.”

Part of those changes saw the club have to decide whether it wanted to continue as a recreational (where the focus is on participation over administration) or performance side (where the opportunity to reach the very top of the club game in Scotland exists).

“We always wanted to be a performance side”, Hyett responds immediately when I ask about her decision, “and to take the club as high as we can.”

“As part of that we needed to implement a pathway. We interviewed a number of girls clubs and eventually we formed a partnership with Currie FC which has been going for a couple of seasons now, although we still have some gaps to close.”

Edinburgh Caledonia recently moved to Meadowbank Stadium, alongside Hibernian and SWPL2 Boroughmuir Thistle, and Hyett is full of praise for Hearts rivals, “We used to play at Lasswade (a small village on the outskirts of Edinburgh) and you were lucky if there was a dug out there on a Sunday”, she laughs, “There was one week there was a bin that was burnt into the pitch, we just had to cordon it off and hope the ball didn’t go out towards that area!”

“When I managed to secure Meadowbank and found out that both Hibs and Boroughmuir were going to be there too, even if it was just a name, that feeling of saying we were playing at the stadium as Hibs, for me personally, meant a lot.”

“I’m in touch with them regularly and if they need to move a game for TV purposes or something else we work it out and then, if there are times when that needs to be reciprocated, then we work that out too. I think that comes from the appreciation of where women’s football has come from and the people involved remembering what it had been like in the past.”

“Thanks to sponsors and lottery funding this has been the first season I’ve been able to provide full kit for the players at no cost to them. Even at our level we are seeing the game growing. One of our sponsors is massive in India and we keep joking as a club that we could become the next Wrexham!”

Of course it will be maroon shirts as opposed to green that Hyett and her teammates will face on Sunday but she’s unfazed by the prospect of facing a side that have increased investment significantly in recent seasons, “Eva (Olid) has obviously done a great job. We know how fortunate we are to be involved in this game (a 2-1 victory over Armadale Thistle in the Second Round secured Caley’s third round spot) but we are going to try and treat it like any other game.”

A Scottish Cup runner-up as part of that Cove Rangers side that lost 8-0 to Hibernian at McDiarmid Park in the 2005 final, one thing Hyett hopes for is to avoid the 16-0 scoreline that befell her side when they hosted the competition’s most successful side, Glasgow City at the same stage of the competition in 2019, although there is still a fond memory in there, “It’s one of my favourite photos, sliding into Leanne Crichton, I thought it was an OK tackle, and Hayley Lauder is stood in the background with her hands in the air.”

Being competitive is the reoccurring ambition she has for her side come Sunday, “Scottish Cup shocks are rare in the women’s game but as time goes on there will be more possibilities of that happening. If we can minimise that gap in the eyes of those little girls on the sidelines watching then that will do a lot for us.”

“A lot of our Currie girls from the pathway are coming along and a lot of them are Hearts fans. To give them that opportunity to meet some of their favourite players afterwards and with Hearts hopefully walking away with the feeling that they have been in a tough game, that would mean a helluva lot.”

Before finishing our conversation I ask what Sunday’s game would mean to her.

“Last year I had six months out injured and I got a taste of what not playing was like, people kept making suggestions for hobbies. I was never keen, nothing beats football, but my body knows it’s nearing its time.”

“I’ve been involved in bigger games but because of this club, and with this being my final six months as a player, to have the opportunity to be able to go out with a bit of a bang against an SWPL side, with this team, it’s all I’ve ever wanted.”

Edinburgh Caledonia face Heart of Midlothian at 3pm on Sunday 7th January in the Third Round of the Women’s Scottish Cup at Oriam National Performance Centre.

This will be coverage of the women’s game in Scotland that will be like nothing else you will see. That takes time, research and a few favours along the way. To gain access to all our features, exclusive interviews and insight on the big issues and big games, please consider a paid £10 monthly subscription or a £50 annual subscription (£75 if you are feeling super generous as a founding member), starting with a 7-day free trial, to continue the growth of informed and unique coverage of the women’s game in Scotland.

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Happy New Year!

I hope that the year to come is kind, eventful in all the right ways and prosperous for you and the people that you love.

Firstly, an apology that Leading the Line has been quiet over this last month. A combination of exhaustion following the Nations League campaign and some other projects related to the world of women’s football that are more successful in helping to pay the bills.

It’s exciting to have work starting to populate my calendar and it feels a long way from that winter evening a few years ago where in frustration that nobody was talking about the opening day of the SWPL season I rustled up some match day graphics and set them free into the world. In many ways as the women’s game has grown so have I, and my ambitions will continue to push higher.

These projects have also allowed me some time to reflect on the type of content that I want to produce here in a space where I have rare full autonomy over the creative direction. Losing sight of that has probably played into that end of 2023 fatigue.

I’ll share a bit more on that new direction in due course but for now it would feel incomplete of me not to share my thoughts ahead of a year that will begin with wounds to heal for SWNT following a scarring end to the Nations League campaign at Hampden.

So without further ado, let’s get into five hopes for the Scotland women’s national team in 2024.

Qualification for Euro 2025

The most obvious one, but by the end of the year Scotland supporters will know whether or not summer plans in 2025 will be pointed towards Switzerland with the draw Euro 2025 qualifying taking place on the 4th March 2024.

Scotland finishing bottom of their UEFA Women’s Nations League Group A table was not, despite the optimistic prism that I will continue to view our national side through in 2024, a huge surprise.

England, (2022 European Champions and 2023 World Cup Finalists) and The Netherlands (2017 European Champions and 2019 World Cup Finalists) are heavyweights of the women’s game while Belgium were opposition to be approached with a sense of parity, two eventual draws against the Belgians, Scotland’s only points of the campaign, adding weight to that particular theory.

This was also not the same Scotland side that had earned it’s spot in Nations League Group A, sneaking in as the 16th seeds courtesy of a boom period when our national side had qualified for back-to-back major tournament finals. A squad shorn of some of past influential figures, some still fighting on, and going through transition under a manager who arrived in July 2021 following a period where the momentum built going into the 2019 World Cup had all but eroded away.

Having seemingly found a winning formula over the course of a summer where Scotland won four consecutive games under Pedro Martinéz Losa for the first the UWNL campaign ended with relegation and (to phrase it politely) deflation.

The 6-0 loss to England the third time (a 4-0 loss to The Netherlands and a record equalling 8-0 loss to Spain) under the Spaniard that Scotland took to the pitch against high quality opposition only to be brutally put to the sword.

In the post-match autopsy of that English defeat questions around the future of Pedro Martinez Losa began to surface more directly. Will he still be in charge for this campaign? I’d be surprised if he wasn’t, and although there is an increasing number of questions to resolve the eight month wasteland to progress that followed Shelley Kerr’s departure on Christmas Eve of December 2020 can’t return.

More practically he is also contracted to the role until September 2027, following an extension granted before the start of the Nations League campaign. The timing of which caught almost everybody by surprise.

Having lived in Madrid I’ve found some (unexpected on his part) common ground with the current national team manager in the peripheral conversations that happen before microphones are switched on and like all good madrileño’s the offer of a coffee before getting down to business is never far way. However, when the red light flickers on and the talk turns to the pitch there have been times when clarity of process has drifted away, particularly in those moments when a result has not gone Scotland’s way.

I want Martinéz Losa to succeed, in fact more broadly I want everyone in life to succeed. I am also not a football coach, and to give a mini-spoiler related to my introduction earlier, I have no inclination to become a tactical Svengali or to spend time on the touchline without a camera, pen or a pie in my hand but as a fan who has watched A LOT of Scottish women’s football and has spoken to others who do the same there have been curiosities to be found throughout the Nations League campaign.

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At home against England and The Netherlands Martha Thomas began on the bench. A striker who has flourished following a summer move to Tottenham Hotspur and a player that has been open about how much playing under coaches that believe in her adds confidence to her game. Attempting to secure a home victory without a striker starting on the pitch was a tactic that failed to produce results.

Having found success against Australia, Costa Rica, Northern Ireland and Finland with one style of play, in Nations League contests the systems in place and the personnel involved would frequently be changed. It was hard not to wonder if perhaps at times overthinking had started to come into play although circumstances did mean that sometimes his hand would be forced.

The defection of Sandy MacIver from the dark side (I kid…slightly) to the light added depth to an area of the squad where numbers were short, particularly following a wrist injury that saw Eartha Cumings miss the last four UWNL games, but MacIver was also third choice at club side Manchester City, with game time reserved for fleeting appearances in the Continental Cup.

The reaction from those covering the WSL doubled down on the idea that Scotland had managed something of a coup. She started against The Netherlands and away to Belgium before Lee Gibson returned for the final game. Who will be Scotland’s number one going into the New Year is now unclear for the first time since Gibson succeeded Gemma Fay and can MacIver stake a claim while continuing to spend the majority of her time on the City bench? It’s not impossible, but there’s no doubting her inclusion has added questions along with competition.

Of course injuries had a huge impact on the campaign along with the need to try and regenerate areas of the team where the conveyor belt has recently stuttered. Beside MacIver; Amy Rodgers, Jamie Lee-Napier, Amy Gallacher, Jenny Smith, Chelsea Cornet and a pair of teenagers we will talk about shortly all made their debut as Martinéz Losa casted his net far and wide for reinforcements.

No nation would go unscathed at an elite level when the talents of Caroline Weir, Emma Watson, Erin Cuthbert and Sam Kerr become unavailable, and the fact that the epidemic ran almost exclusively through the heart of the Scottish midfield allows some leniency, particularly in the Dutch double header. Recency however, is so often king in football, and the 6-0 defeat at Hampden has become the lasting memory of SWNT’s 2023.

Can Scotland qualify for the Euro 2025? I’d hope so. Despite our recent troubles Scotland should still aim to be one of the best sixteen sides on the continent even if the number of emerging nations striving to catch up and pass Scotland by are increasing by the day.

There is sufficient talent but Scotland’s greatest strength has always been found when making a collective stronger than the sum of its parts. If Scotland are to make it to the Alps then they are going to have secure a victory in a moment that matters for the first time since a 2018 victory over Albania in Shkodër (arguments can be made that the 1-0 victory over Austria should be included here but the defeat to Ireland a few days later was the one that ultimately counted).

There has to be a mentality shift. A belief that Scotland can get that big win that at times has felt absent from conversations with some players during press conferences over these last few months.

I believe they can, and if Martinéz Losa is to turn doubters into believers, securing Euro 2025 qualification in the process, then he has to find a way to make everyone else feel that way too.

An U23’s programme is now in full swing, but clarity in how it will benefit the national side long term needs to be found.

One of my early post-match conversations with Shelley Kerr came following an 8-0 victory over Cyprus at the start of the ill-fated, in more ways than one, 2021 Euro qualifying campaign. With the result a formality and the room sparsely populated despite the side competing at a World Cup just a few months earlier I took a stab at a question that had been percolating in my head for some time, “The jump between the U19’s and the national team is awfully big isn’t it?”

It’s a question I would circle back to as the personnel on the other end of it would change and so, following a hasty soft launch against Panama in November 2022 I was delighted to see the announcement a fully fledged programme would begin in September of 2023.

While an U23 programme is not a given for even some of the biggeset nations in the women’s game, for Scotland there is no doubt that bridging the gap between 19’s to A squad has the potential to be hugely beneficial.

The increased standard and physicality along with the immersion in a national team environment available to talented youngsters not ready to leave home, the SWPL, or quite ready to be a regular name at first team level, should prevent players who in the past have drifted away feel that a more gentle path to the elite level of the women’s game now exists.

Teenagers Emma Watson and Kirsty MacLean are two players that have also shown that talent can be fast tracked through the system, both (when fit) already feel like stick on’s to be involved in the squad for Euro 2025 qualifiers, while for those on the fringes, capped but yet to be regulars such as Amy Muir, Jenny Smith and Leah Eddie it gives continued exposure to international football. Players such as Aberdeen duo Bayley Hutchison and Eilidh Shore are now provided a long term step that has pulled them back from the international wilderness after prolific spells at earlier age levels.

As part of the U23 programme squads can also include a selection of overage players and the squads selected by Scotland for games against Australia and Netherlands this year have done that and I’ll be honest, I’m not sure how I feel.

Seeing established SWNT squad members such as Jenna Clark (although at 22 Clark would be eligible anyway) and Abi Harrison (now 26 but 25 when called up) being asked to make a perceived “step down” from the level at which they are already established questions what can be learned by player and coaches alike.

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If there is no space for them in the first-team squad and at a time when conversations are being had about the overload on female footballers as demand for them increases, would it not be for the greater good to allow them some time at home?

Rangers striker Kirsty Howat (26), who scored in the opening minute during a 3-1 defeat against The Netherlands is a different case. Having been called up as a replacement during the UWNL campaign she currently remains uncapped.

She has developed into one of the SWPL’s most complete forwards following a challenging time due to injury. With Scotland chasing goals against Belgium in Leuven would having Howat available been more beneficial than adding her experience to what in essence is a youth friendly?

At 26, does Howat, who, as already alluded to, has more than earned her shot at international football over the last twelve months, qualify as “part of the Scottish FA’s strategic priority to bridge the gap between youth and senior international football.” given that her last cap at youth level was back in 2016?

Just because you are allowed to include overage players does it mean it’s in the spirit of development to do so? When a space opens up in the senior squad how will performances at U23 level be used to assess how ready a player is to make the leap and is every player within it viewed with the potential to do so?

A period of transition is happening and, all going well, the players who have made up these early squads will become key protagonists within that. In 2024 the hope is that the pathway to the top for the next generation, and for those whose flowers have bloomed a little later, becomes much clearer.

Scotland have to turning Hampden the building into a home

Let’s not mess about, the atmosphere for Scotland’s three home encounters in the UWNL was, at best, subdued, the third of which against England was forced into submission for more sporting reasons.

Hampden is Scotland’s national stadium. Prior to the contest against England the latest cohort of women’s football pioneers received caps and overdue recognition for their service to the national team. For decades generations of women were locked out, to move games away from Mount Florida would not only be a backward step in perception but could also be seen to undermine their fight for equality.

The national team should play at the national stadium and now the move has been made it cannot be backtracked on. There can be improvements made but there also has to be some collective introspection into why the atmosphere for SWNT games has felt so distant.

On field performances have to enthuse and Scotland are currently going through a lean spell. I’ll never forget coming back to Scotland after living away and returning to Hampden for a men’s friendly against Costa Rica. I couldn’t convince anyone else to come, we lost 1-0 in front of a crowd of 20,448, the atmosphere sucked and it was a side scraping the bottom of it’s performance parabola at the time. A stark contrast from the sell-out signs that have been going up for a men’s matchday over the last two campaigns. The worm can turn.

Despite a competitive record crowd of 15,320 being announced for the defeat to England crowds have been poor and the trend has been stagnation at a time where across the globe some serious records are being broken.

Some supporters will point to increased ticket prices but what is an appropriate price for a women’s international? I’m not sure anyone has nailed the working on that one (although Arsenal’s impressive numbers this year show that with long term planning growth can be achieved and at some point in 2024 I’ll be heading down to learn more about how) and isn’t striving for sustainability a long term objective across the women’s game? For Scotland Supporters Club Members, in theory some of the most invested in Scottish success, entry remains free.

All three of Scotland’s home Nations League ties were on a Tuesday night. This was often presented as a reason and with a marketing skew towards a younger audience there is sympathy to be found but it is also one that seemed to shrug at a resolution. I get it, Friday makes it easier, but a well filled Hampden on a Tuesday night is not a rare occurrence.

It was also noticeable that often the most noise would come form those who had travelled from the continent (and over the border) to Glasgow. The Belgian laddie in his bright red suit a particular highlight but even the anthem, while performed beautifully, set a tone that what is about to happen will all be quite nice.

Buildings cannot generate atmosphere. They can focus it and fine tune its power. Flames and bagpipes can add occasion but they have no voice. Marketing and media coverage can generate hype but pictures and words make no sound. It is people, or in this case the fans, that will ultimately be required to bring the noise.

My hope is that through collaboration a way to make the decibels soar can be found creating an environment for supporters and also the players so that SWNT can become as equally synonymous with the phrase “The Hampden Roar”.

Which brings me on to Hope Four…

It’s time brand SWNT is given the opportunity to stand on it’s own two feet

I’m finally shooting my shot on this one after flapping my gums about it for the best part of two years. It’s always been bubbling under the surface but one thing has led to this leap of faith: Scotland’s qualification for the Men’s European Championships this coming summer.

Let me explain.

On the floor of Brussel’s Charleroi Airport myself and a couple of other Scotland fans returning to Edinburgh were sat huddled around my laptop watching the draw for the 2024 finals unfold before our eyes, less than a day removed from a UWNL qualifier and with another against the Auld Enemy on the horizon, the narrative across Scotland’s social channels had understandably shifted (and that’s without adding youth campaigns into the mix too).

As a fully paid up and long-serving member of the Tartan Army I’m buzzing that Scotland are back at a proper summer tournament but the messaging on socials following the 3-3 draw against Norway, amongst the celebrations and montages was one of an international season being over.

Again, understandably the week that followed was awash with celebration. Eventually with the latest SWNT campaign on the horizon the shift occurred, but a name change on Instagram highlighted a flaw in this one channel model as Schottland (Q), remained for the next phase of the SWNT campaign, with Instagram rules not allowing for more than one name change over the course of the next fourteen days. An honest oversight but a risk that can be run.

Looking outwards all three of Scotland’s Nations League opponents were able to platform their women’s sides on individual channels; Lionesses, Oranje Leeuwinnen and the Belgian Red Flames. Support for these channels will continue to rise providing bespoke platforms, that can be cross-shared and tell the stories of their respective national sides. Although in the interest of parity the Irish and Welsh offerings continue to operate a single model.

Sole branding is a strategy widely implemented across the club game too both domestically in Scotland and across the globe allowing for measurable growth and cross promotion when the content is appropriate to do so; tapping into a broader fanbase at specific moments as opposed to casting a wide net hoping to latch onto some strays.

It also gives potential sponsors a clear message to become invested in. Brands that may not be attracted to the men’s game may be into SWNT, although Scottish Gas’ joint sponsorship of the Scottish Cup shows patriotic appeal can be universal.

An April 2023 survey by FootballCo, the giant behind global brands such as Goal and women football-focused Indivisa revealed that YouTube is the most popular social media platform for supporters to find their content.

48% of the 2,291 respondents revealed that they go to YouTube for women’s football content, ahead of 42% each for Facebook and Instagram, and 37% for TikTok. Other platforms named included Twitter (35%), WhatsApp (31%), Snapchat (29%), Twitch (27%), Pinterest (27%), and Telegram (26%) but what was most interesting was that followers of the women’s game crave connection with those they see playing the game. To their credit the SFA have tapped into that with the Forza Scozia documentary in particular profiling players based in Scotland at an equal level.

However, is it possible to provide a truly equal platform when one half of the partnership has had a significant cultural and societal head start?

Starting on day one, when existing platforms have 700,000+ followers is scary. It could be seen as bowing to the melons who feel the need to articulate their lack of care for the women’s game.

Financial limitations and resource will also be at play, not to shock you but in football terms Scotland is not a land of milk and honey, but there will be no escaping that Scotland’s priorities in the opening month’s of 2024 will naturally shift towards Germany.

If you think that feels unnecessarily nervy then read the post that accompanied the appointment of Graeme Jones’ as Scottish FA Performance Director for all national sides, detailing the preparation process for this summer’s campaign but that mentions the women’s national side just once at a time when performance considerations are at the forefront of most SWNT supporting minds.

For whatever reason, maybe results and fatigue after a series of public disagreements (now seemingly resolved) between players and the SFA have played a part, the Scotland women’s national side has work to do to win over the hearts and minds of a country obsessed with it’s football after a difficult year.

A blank canvas could provide an opportunity to platform a generation of players that have done the hard yards, pushed for change, blazed their own trails, created history and become global superstars on the biggest stage.

It might not work, but it’s worth a try.

SWNT is for Everyone

Throughout the Nations League campaign I have been fortunate to/made a point of spending time with, and talking to supporters of all shapes and sizes. From those I see week-in and week-out on the SWPL beat to the life-affirming energy of youngsters who are aspiring to follow their heroes onto the Hampden turf.

For Scotland’s qualifier away to The Netherlands I watched the contest (on muted screens as an England Rugby World Cup match held priority) in a Southside pub with a start-up group called Pitch Please out to provide supporter space for a generation of Scotland fans that embrace a different kind of pints and party culture to the one seen in the men’s game and has felt distant from the more kid friendly nature the women’s game has been promoted towards. Ahead of the England game at Hampden, they sold out Queen’s Park 1967 Bar as a pre-match venue for supporters.

In Leuven and Tampere I met up with a generation a supporters who remember Scotland glory days the first time around. I’ve been fascinated at how a generation of female fans have emerged in their later years and on a more personal note both my dad and sister have become SWNT regulars when they haven’t been before.

Women’s football openness to the LGBTQIA+ community has ensured that it has become a safe space for supporters who can often feel without a home in the men’s game and I can tell you that conversations around the women’s game in Scotland are now filtering into old man discourse in corner bars and on terraces away from the SWPL and SWNT match days.

There is also the Tartan Army. General Scotland fans. Folk who like football. Yer Auntie. Yer Dug and the guy who delivers your papers on a Sunday morning.

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Support is growing and my hope for 2024 is not just some, but all of these people feel represented in some way. That they feel elation in success and the sting of defeat. That they can go to Hampden, turn on a television, read a website or newspaper and be proud of a women’s national team that is striving for so much more than just the results on the pitch.

I’ll end my hopes for 2024 on this.

I hope more than anything that the handbrake comes off when it comes to championing Scottish women’s football, that being bold allows for boundaries to be broken bigger and faster than ever before. That work commissioned in celebration is actually celebrated, that the trailblazers who receive their belated honours can cast their eyes across Hampden and feel like it’s all been worth it. That young boys and girls pick Caroline Weir and Erin Cuthbert over Leah Williamson and Lucy Bronze in EAFC. That brands and publications give the support to the women’s game at a time when it needs it most. That with the whole world telling you women’s sport is the next big thing, that people embrace it.

I am unwavering in my belief in the potential of Scottish women’s football, but no person, player, club, nation, media outlet or organisation can do it alone. Together Scotland can be massive and it all can begin with a little bit of hope.

This will be coverage of the women’s game in Scotland that will be like nothing else you will see. That takes time, research and a few favours along the way. To gain access to all our features, exclusive interviews and insight on the big issues and big games, please consider a paid £10 monthly subscription or a £50 annual subscription (£75 if you are feeling super generous as a founding member), starting with a 7-day free trial, to continue the growth of informed and unique coverage of the women’s game in Scotland.

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Full Time from Den Dreef Stadion, Leuven

Scotland’s UWNL relegation from League A was confirmed despite a gutsy display in Leuven as Erin Cuthbert’s 30-yard-screamer secured a second Nations League point at the Den Dreef Stadion.

Scotland made two changes from the side that lost 1-0 to the Netherlands as a fit-again Sam Kerr and Tottenham Hotspur striker Martha Thomas returning to the starting line up with Kirsty Hanson and Sophie Howard dropped out while Sandy MacIver maintained her spot in goal and there was a 50th Scotland cap for Rangers defender Nicola Docherty on a night where effort and determination was never in short supply but where that decisive final touch failed to materialise.

Scotland knew that anything other than victory would confirm relegation to Nations League B irrespective of what was happening in the other Group A1 encounter between England and The Netherland, and the visitors would make a spritely start as an energetic high press kept Scotland on the back foot.

As Scottish bodies pressed the hosts tried to turn the Scottish rearguard and exploit the spaces in behind with Justine Vanhaevermaet’s skewed effort from the edge of the area the first sign of their ability to generate chances before a Cuthbert run from deep would be found by Claire Emslie, however the Chelsea midfielder’s effort would be snuffed out as the game continued to ebb and flow.

With thirty-one minutes played Belgium would take the lead as a nicely worked move down the left hand side would find 19-year-old Marie Detruyer unmarked in and around the penalty spot, the teenager sweeping the ball into the corner with a single touch.

It was a goal that felt harsh on Scotland who were showing the signs of the side that had competed so effervescently against England in their opening Nations League contest in Sunderland and a deserved equaliser would soon follow just a few minutes later.

It would be a strike that would catch almost everyone by surprise, as Cuthbert unleashed an effort from thirty yards that sailed into the top of the net. Sparking a few open jaws from the small contingent of Scotland fans and media who had made their way to Leuven for the game.

As the second half began, and with The Netherlands 2-0 up on England, hopes that Scotland could find a way back into the group started to bubble and they would begin on the front foot, almost taking the lead but Jenna Clark’s header from a Cuthbert cross would go just wide before Emslie would see an effort after good work from Losa Evans also graze past the post.

The inability to test Evrard would eventually prove to be Scotland’s undoing.

Belgium, who still have their eye on an spot at next year’s Olympics bit back as Tessa Wullaert started to operate dangerously on the edge of the Scottish penalty area but the chances for the Red Flames were few and far between as Scotland continued to press.

Kirsty Hanson and Abi Harrison came on to refresh pressing Scottish legs in a game that started to feel like it could go either way and although Scotland would continue to generate the greatest pressure shots on target would remain in short supply as Belgium looked to counter.

Results in other places started to turn against Scotland as Georgia Stanway and Lauren Hemp drew England level at Wembley, before Ella Toone’s goal after the final whistle would see Sarina Wingman’s side complete their turnaround.

Despite one more late hurrah the goal that Scotland needed failed to materialise, and the game ended with Erin Cuthbert having to leave the pitch after a heavy looking tackle.

Scotland may have bowed out from Nations League A tonight but it was a performance that should give renewed hope to supporters that a victory against the Auld Enemy can be achieved on Tuesday night.

What they said

Pedro Martinez Losa on relegation and future Euro hopes:

“The learning process and how this competition was built was always going to be very tough. We wanted to be tested and we tried to change a few things in the second half, more energy but that is where we are in the women’s game at present. You need that little bit more”

“Now what we have to do is find another route to qualify for the Euros which is possible and was always our objective.”

Rachel Corsie on competing and the lessons to be learned:

“It’s a tough lesson and this is the top level with tight margins. We’ve have had more than enough of the ball and we’ve got to create more opportunities for ourselves.”

“We do really believe in the group of players that we have. We came here to claim the three points and at half time we were pleased to get straight back in it after going behind. It’s nice to feel you can come to a place like this and do so well but ultimately it’s about results and we just need to get back together and find a way and have difficult questions.”

Hayley Lauder on her probe at being back in the fold:

“I don’t think we really tested their goalkeeper too much which is disappointing for all the possession that we had but we are growing as a group and we have to take those positives from tonight into Tuesday.”

“It’s a good level but we’re an elite team as well and I think all week we’ve been training at a good level. I’m really proud that I played tonight after such a long game. Hopefully I made a difference. I’m not here to make up the number, to play my part and hopefully help the young players as well.”

It was Sophie Howard’s late, late equaliser from a Lee Gibson free kick that means Scotland still have a chance of securing their spot at the elite level of the Nations League as they prepare to face Belgium for match day five of the competition at the Don Dreef Stadion on Friday night.

“We’ve got everything to play for”, said the 30-year-old central defender as clouds of cold, crisp breath plumes into the air between us; we’re chatting briefly ahead of today’s training session, “We have to prove ourselves, we know we can do much better and I think there was a massive improvement from the first to second Netherlands game.”

That improvement saw Scotland soften the blow of a 4-0 loss in Nijmegen with a 1-0 defeat at Hampden. It was however still defeat but the defender is quick to point out the levels since the squad returned to camp this week have increased again, “It’s been very intense but we needed that. We need to put things right from the previous camps, it’s the last one of 2023 and we want to end on a bang.”

Having made her Scotland debut in Leuven against the same opposition six years ago, Scotland would lose 5-0 in a friendly that day, Howard has established herself as a regular fixture in the defence and is one of a small handful of players to have started all four of Scotland’s Nations League group games (Rachel Corsie, Nicola Docherty, Kirsty Hanson and Claire Emslie being the other four).

That regularity and her burgeoning experience within the squad has been complimented with the return of two familiar faces in Glasgow City’s Hayley Lauder and London City Lionesses’ Emma Mukandi, “Both Hayley and Emma are really, really good people and good players that bring experience, graft and feistiness to the pitch.”

Mukandi’s return adds further options to a defence that has switched between a back three and a back four in recent games. Howard has been the one constant at it’s heart during those changes with captain Rachel Corsie stepping into midfield against the Dutch.

Irrespective of how the team lines up for Howard the task at hand is very clear, “The goal of this portion of the campaign is to win both games. What will happen in the end we don’t know.”

Scotland will have to play with the shackles off come Friday night but whether that is from the off or comes later in the game the 43-times-capped defender believes that her side have the quality to get the job done, “If we perform at our best tomorrow it should be a success but we need to make sure we put that on the pitch.”

Scotland face Belgium tomorrow with a 19:30 (GMT) kick off time. The game is live on BBC Alba for those watching at home.

This will be coverage of the women’s game in Scotland that will be like nothing else you will see. That takes time, research and a few favours along the way. To gain access to all our features, exclusive interviews and insight on the big issues and big games, please consider a paid £10 monthly subscription or a £50 annual subscription (£75 if you are feeling super generous as a founding member), starting with a 7-day free trial, to continue the growth of informed and unique coverage of the women’s game in Scotland.

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As I hit record to ask my first question of the MD-1 interview with Pedro Martinéz Losa all the warmth that had been stored in my body during my walk to the Den Dreef Stadion, the venue for Scotland’s next UWNL Group A tie against Belgium, escaped from my body, generating a shudder that felt like a thousand icicles rattling around my circulatory system, “Do you want a coffee?’ asked Scotland’s Head Coach.

I did, but that could wait.

Scotland come into tomorrow’s Nations League with a chance, albeit a slim one, of retaining their Nations League spot.

“We knew we had six games to play at the highest level,” followed up the Spaniard, “We needed to win two. That was the objective and we can still do that starting tomorrow.”

Scotland have to win their last two matches against Belgium and England to have any chance of avoiding the Nations League drop, that process begins on Friday night against an opposition the Spanish Head Coach knows will be physical once again.

“I think that was probably the most angry people will have seen me in the last two years”, he said when reflecting on a post-match interview following the 1-1 draw with the Belgians at Hampden where he was indeed the angriest I’ve ever seen him, “It was a game that led to us losing a key player (in Caroline Weir ,who is continuing her recovery from an ACL injury back in Madrid) but away from that they are a very dangerous team on the counter attack. They’ve managed to get good results in this group but we showed that we will fight until the end to get that equaliser.”

Weir’s absence for the Dutch double header last month along with that of Emma Watson, Sam Kerr and Erin Cuthbert, although the latter was permitted to play sixty minutes of the 1-0 loss at Hampden, saw Scotland appear short of midfield options.

Bayern Munich’s Kerr returns but injury has this time seen Christy Grimshaw forced to pull out of the squad. In her place Martinéz Losa has called upon an experienced head for the first time during his tenure, 103 times capped Glasgow City midfielder, Hayley Lauder.

“She is very experienced and ahead of many players in terms of game understanding. Hayley has been a player that we had considered before. Some players can make it into the national team in a different way and her energy has made a difference.”

While the midfield options available have been a consequence of events outwith the Spaniards control how his side lines up in Leuven on Friday evening firmly remains within it, and having changed formation for both legs of the Netherlands double header that ultimately led to two defeats there was a suggestion that a tweak could come again, “We are in a position that we can pick and choose what is the best for the team, a formation can be a solution and selection is another one.”

One selection made for Scotland’s last encouter that caught some off guard was the inclusion of Sandy MacIver, chosen ahead of recently voted SWF International Player of the Year and Glasgow City No.1, Lee Gibson between the Scottish posts.

Who starts in Leuven doesn’t feel a given in either direction. Since that 1-0 loss to the Netherlands at Hampden MacIver has played just once, a 4-3 Conti Cup victory away to Liverpool on 8th November, and she remains behind both Khiara Keating and Ellie Roebuck in the City pecking order, although the mood music is starting to suggest Roebuck will seek a move come the turn of the year.

“What you want is a competitive environment and you want all the players to be ready to play”, explains Martinéz Losa about whether or not he has a Scotland No. 1, “If you have a number one you want them to be excellent but you want the other players who you can call upon to be that way too, it is a natural evolution of football to value what you have but also to assess the options we have for the future too and that includes everyone in the squad.”

It will be interesting to see who takes the gloves on Friday night. The more established Gibson, who celebrated 50 caps for her country during this campaign and has been at the epicentre of some of SWNT’s most significant moments of recent times, or recent debutant MacIver, highly regarded down south despite her lack of game time at club level and was awarded the Player of the Match against The Netherlands.

Whatever the choices made if Scotland are to defeat Belgium, achieving the first of two victories set out as an objective at the start of the campaign, then it will need formation, selection and performances individually and as a collective to combine to the fullest of it’s potential.

This will be coverage of the women’s game in Scotland that will be like nothing else you will see. That takes time, research and a few favours along the way. To gain access to all our features, exclusive interviews and insight on the big issues and big games, please consider a paid £10 monthly subscription or a £50 annual subscription (£75 if you are feeling super generous as a founding member), starting with a 7-day free trial, to continue the growth of informed and unique coverage of the women’s game in Scotland.

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On arrival, and after entering via the main door, your walk towards it takes you past a definitively sport-centric landscape.

Shorts and sports wear are more prevalent than jeans and trainers. There are basketball courts where a wheelchair sports session is currently in progress, pivot your head from east-to-west and on Europe’s largest synthetic indoor pitch a youthful generation of Scottish football stars are tidying away the bibs and balls.

Past changing rooms you turn left down a corridor where the words of the national anthem are stretched across the walls in both English and Gaelic, a welcome to some of Scotland’s most celebrated talent as they prepare to get to work. Turn again, and the colours change from golden yellow to shades of blue; of all the words that are emblazoned across this panel of brickwork one stands up above all other, “Believe”.

Going into Friday’s trip to Leuven to face Belgium Scotland’s hopes of remaining in Nations League Group A hang by the wispiest of threads. Victories will have to come against the Belgians and four days later at home to England for survival to be achieved, and even then, that may not be enough as anything other than a defeat for England at home to The Netherlands at Wembley will confirm Scotland’s relegation.

Hanging by a thread they are but sometimes when you a pull a thread tight, choose to wrap it around a single digit over and over again; to the point of tension where it feels like it could snap that thread can gather into a collective of many, with a feeling far stronger than any chain of steel or iron. For Scotland, there is still a chance that the collective can see it through.

Do the squad believe that they can get the results they need I ask Aston Villa’s Kirsty Hanson, the winger has been handed the task of previewing Friday night’s contest, “We know what the results can do,” said last year’s WSL Player of the Year nominee, “but we are focusing on ourselves, pushing each other everyday to ensure that when we step on that pitch on Friday we can go right at it and get the result that we need.”

Putting aside a humbling 4-0 loss to The Netherlands in Nijmegen Scotland’s results have been tight, drawing once and losing by a single goal on two further occasions during an UWNL campaign where they currently sit bottom of the table with a point to their name. The phrase “fine margins” and “being close” have become the buzzwords of this Nations League campaign for Scotland.

It is perhaps fair to believe that something should have been gained from a trip to the Stadium of Light against England. There is never not a buzz to see a result pulled from the jaws of defeat, such as was the case when Sophie Howard headed home a late Lee Gibson free-kick to secure a draw against Belgium but at home to The Netherlands the over-arching feeling from fans was that Scotland set out not to lose as opposed to going out in pursuit of a victory; in this current iteration, the suggestion is front foot Scotland is the most potent of all.

Reference will be made to the injuries that forced Pedro Martinéz Losa’s hand as Esmee Brugts goal secured a 1-0 victory for the visiting Dutch but the shackles now have to be released, there is nothing to lose from a pair of must-win games.

Those fine margins that have so far gone against Scotland will have to be turned in our favour, “Obviously last time they were very physical”, explains Hanson who will be trying to implement her own learnings from the last time Scotland faced Belgium, “They were touch tight a lot of the time and I know I need to maybe work on my close control a bit and do different things to get away from them on the ball, having character on the ball but also off the ball. If things aren’t going right you never give up.”

With the right mentality Scotland have the weapons to get a result in Belgium and, from there, against an England side who have demonstrated fragility for the first time under Sarina Weigman’s primarily indomitable reign over the Lionesses at Hampden.

Whatever the results of these two games, come 11pm on Tuesday night the full analysis on Scotland’s UWNL campaign can begin; until then, it should wait.

If success is achieved then renewed optimism can be allowed to emerge. If results and performances fail to inspire then fair and reasoned questioning should be permitted to probe for the answers supporters will feel they deserve.

The SWNT rollercoaster has had its fair share of ups and downs since Martinéz Losa took over a set up drifting to nowhere back in July 2021 but consistency and success have so far alluded the Spaniard.

Pulling a Nations League recovery job or even a pair of performances that ripple with a bit of Scottish swagger out the bag, will provide evidence that Scotland are moving in the right direction under a manager who recently signed a new deal until 2027.

For me, I am trying to live a glass half-full existence in a world increasingly determined to drink us dry. I would rather believe in the magic that could happen on Friday night than accepting a campaign which began with great hopes and realistic ambitions of establishing ourselves as a true elite tier Nations League side, can be allowed to pass with no more than a whimper.

Until the balls on the mathematician’s abacus spring free from their rods and scatter across the air then the message of belief; that a result in Belgium and Nations League survival could follow is one that has to be drilled into players, coaches and fans alike.

When you believe anything, and everything is possible but without it is there any point in turning up at all.

Scotland face Belgium this Friday 1st December at Den Dreef Stadion with a 7;30pm kick off UK time and the game is live on BBC Alba.

Leading the Line can only exist with your support.

This will be coverage of the women’s game in Scotland that will be like nothing else you will see. That takes time, research and a few favours along the way. To gain access to all our features, exclusive interviews and insight on the big issues and big games, please consider a paid £10 monthly subscription or a £50 annual subscription (£75 if you are feeling super generous as a founding member), starting with a 7-day free trial, to continue the growth of informed and unique coverage of the women’s game in Scotland.

Get 7 day free trial