Accies out of the basement
Dons demolished in first victory
Hamilton Accies moved off the foot of the Scottish Women’s Premier League 1 table with an emphatic 5-1 win over Aberdeen.
Accies led at the interval through Lori Gardner’s well-taken goal, Mhairi Lyle added a second early in the second half, and although the Dons pulled one back through Megan Reid, Emma Lyons bagged a third, and Danni Connolly and captain Gill Inglis made sure of their first win of the season.
Coach Gary Doctor was pleased with his side’s response having suffered from a tough start against the league’s top four teams.
He said: “It’s great to finally get some points on the board. The players were great and have shown great resilience, as we have all season so far.
“We have competed well in the home games to date and haven’t quite got the result. We knew that was a game that both teams would fancy getting a result in.
“Just to get the win was great, but the way we finished with a few goals was even better. Hopefully, the result now gives the players that bit more belief.
“We have a good group who are really committed and pushing each other.”
Amy Anderson split the Dons defence in 23 minutes, allowing Gardner to grab the opener, but they had to wait until the 55th minute to get their second, as Lyle finished well.
Reid pulled a goal back and Aberdeen threw everything they had, in a bid to snatch an equaliser, but Lyons’s header gave them some breathing space and Connolly rifled home a Joanne Paton corner in 85 minutes, before Inglis’s free kick somehow trundled into the back of the net inside stoppage time.
Doctor admitted Aberdeen put his side under pressure at 2-1 and he said: “At that middle point in the second half if somebody had told us we would win 5-1 I would have laughed – Aberdeen had their tails up and were causing us a lot of problems.
“The players showed great resilience, kept their heads and getting the third goal knocked the stuffing out of them a little bit, because it was a little against the run of play.”
Fifth-placed Rangers are next up at the Superseal Stadium and Doctor will make sure his side don’t get carried away.
He said: “We have to keep our feet on the ground. Sunday’s game is gone now, it’s back to training hard, and we focus back on Rangers now.
“It’s going to be a really tough game against a good, experienced Premier League side. They will give us another real challenge next week.”