Celtic grab late goal to claim third Old Firm win this season

Midfielder Lisa Robertson was full of praise for the Celtic defence as, for the third time against Rangers this season, they scored a late goal to make it nine points from nine against their oldest rivals.

The 2-1 win put Celtic up to second in SWPL1, two points ahead of Rangers and now only three behind Glasgow City, who were held to a 0-0 draw by Robertson's old side Hibernian at Broadwood.

“It was a great performance defensively by the team – and when you defend like that you get the luck,” Robertson said. “We got set pieces from breakaways and both of them ended up in the net.

“There's three games left and we're on a good winning run so hopefully that continues to the end of the season and we'll see where it takes us.”

Celtic took the lead against the run of play after 19 minutes. A Mariah Lee downward header was deflected for a corner by Jenna Fife – but from Robertson's corner Kelly Clark powered another header home at the far post.

Rangers equalised midway through the half when full-back Rachel Mclauchlan struck her first goal for the club. Her 22-yard shot looked to be covered by Celtic keeper Chloe Logan, but the ball hit the underside of the bar before going in.

Celtic claimed the three points with a goal eight minutes from time. It was almost a carbon copy of their first, with a Robertson free-kick finding Caitlin Hayes, whose header was brilliantly saved by Fife. The midfielder again took the corner and this time it was Sarah Ewens who headed in the winner.

Hibs had failed to win a point in seven games against the top three sides but held their own in a hard fought 0-0 draw with City.

Spartans took advantage of the Hibs draw to move up to fourth place with a 3-0 win over Forfar Farmington. Motherwell beat Hearts 1-0 and replaced Forfar in sixth place.