Hibs sunk by three-goal blitz as Glasgow City celebrate their 11th league title in a row

Hibernian’s hopes of a first SWPL1 title since 2007 were sunk when they lost three goals in ten first-half minutes to Glasgow City.

It was a crushing experience at Ainslie Park for the home side, who needed to win their last two league games – but instead saw their closest rivals being presented with the Scottish Building Societysponsored trophy at their own ground.

Their dejection was in contrast to the jubilation of the City players, who have now won a remarkable 11 successive Scottish titles.

Lauren Mcmurchie, pictured, opened the scoring after 16 minutes, with Abbi Grant and Hayley Lauder putting the game beyond Hibs with 65 minutes of the game remaining. There was no further scoring.

The result also killed off Hibs’ hopes of winning a domestic treble – the League Cup holders now meet City again in the SSE Scottish Women’s Cup final at Livingston a week on Sunday.

Midfielder Rachael Small, who took the captain’s armband in the absence of Joelle Murray, who was suspended, said: “We came into the game full of confidence, even knowing we’d lost two of the biggest players through suspension.

“We still thought we could do it, but we’ve had a ten-minute spell in the first half and it’s obviously killed the game. We were always chasing it after that.

“Glasgow City are a very experienced team and they just saw the game out.

“We’ve got the Scottish Cup final against them in two weeks time and we need to turn this around.”

City head coach Scott Booth said: “We took our opportunities really well. It was a settler when Lauren scored because it was a great finish and elevated our confidence.” l Aberdeen were relegated to SWPL2 after they lost 4-2 at Stirling University. They will be replaced in the top flight by Forfar Farmington.