Glasgow City reached their 10th successive domestic final following a 1-0 win over Aberdeen at Ainslie Park. City booked their place in this season’s Scottish Women’s Premier League Cup Final through a Clare Shine goal on the stroke of half time. The Cup holders will now contest the Final against Hibernian on Wednesday 15th June.
The narrow score line perhaps doesn’t fully reflect City’s dominance of the game which saw the reigning Champions have the majority of possession and virtually all of the chances. However, of concern for City will be how their control of the game and the fact they had 33 efforts on goal against Aberdeen’s 4, resulted in such a narrow win.
Much credit has to go to the Dons who defended well and had goalkeeper Becky Flaherty to thank for keeping them in the game for long spells. Cruelly it was a Flaherty error which in the end gave City the advantage as Shine closed down her clearance before composing herself and firing past the Aberdeen and Scotland Under 19 number one. However, the Dons remain a very strong side in the SWPL and one which City and a number of their Premier League rivals have at times struggled to overcome.
Pleasing for City will be the return to fitness of Shine and another 90 minutes for Julie Fleeting. The Scotland all-time top goalscorer once again proved a handful in the opposition box and was denied a goal with the cross bar coming to the Dons rescue late on in the second half. Similarly, the result is City’s eighth clean sheet from their opening nine games.
Commenting on the match, City Head Coach Scott Booth said: “It’s a great feeling to have another Cup Final to look forward to”.
“Aberdeen made it really tough for us but we know we can play much better. Hopefully we can show that in the Final.”
City will go head to head against Hibs in a repeat of last year’s Final, where City emerged victorious winning 2-1 AET. The two sides, who competed for all prizes last year have only met once this season, with City winning 2-0 last weekend.
Reported by Glasgow City FC
Pictures: Tommy Hughes
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