Photo by Malcolm Mackenzie
Celtic picked up their first silverware of the Fran Alonso era after a keenly contested clash with Glasgow City at Firhill.
Caitlin Hayes headed home the only goal of the game midway through the first half to secure a 1-0 win and deny City yet another cup trophy.
The Hoops started brightly and almost opened the scoring inside the first minute, but Lee Alexander did well to push Charlie Wellings’ effort onto the post.
Clarissa Larisey then found space for the shot in the box but once again Alexander was equal to it, although the shot was tame and looked to be heading wide.
On 25 minutes though, Celtic did take the lead with a bullet header from Hayes flying high into the net after a wonderful delivery from Sarah Harkes.
In truth, the rest of the first half didn’t quite get going, but Harkes almost added a second for Celtic right at the start of the second half when the ball was cleared as far as her on the edge of the area, seeing her shot kept out by Alexander.
At the other end, Hayley Lauder got on the end of an Ode Fulutudilu cross, seeing her lacklustre header going straight into the arms of Rachael Johnstone, before Celtic broke and fired wide through Wellings.
Just before the hour mark Celtic really should have added a second when Wellings flicked the ball through for Jacynta Galabadaarachchi who was only denied by the quick reflexes of Alexander racing from the City goal.
They did have the ball in the net soon after through Chloe Craig, heading home after Wellings’ shot was parried, but the offside flag denied Celtic and cut short the celebrations of a large portion of the record 3,645 crowd inside Firhill.
City looked like they were going to be awarded a penalty when Shorts slid in on Fulutudilu, but the South African stayed on her feet and was only denied an assist thanks to a wonderful fingertip save from Johnstone to push the ball away from the waiting Priscila Chinchilla.
The SWPL 1 champions came even closer to equalising with 13 minutes to play when Walsh met a corner from the left and she was unfortunate to see her header come crashing off the bar, before being collected by Johnstone.
Glasgow City pressed but it was Celtic who came closest to adding a second when substitutes Shen Mengyu and Tegan Bowie combined before the latter was thwarted by Alexander.
That would be the last action of the game however as Celtic won the SWPL Cup for the first time since 2010.
Glasgow City: Alexander; Molin, Clark, Walsh, Agata; Davidson (Fulton, 46), Lauder, Farrelly, Chinchilla; Fulutudilu, Colvill (Dodds, 86)
Celtic: Johnstone; Hayes, Clark, Shorts; Craig, Chance, Harkes (Toland, 89), Bartle; Jacynta (Bowie, 85); Wellings, Larisey (Shen, 82)
