Rachel relishes new role
Rachel Todd has praised her St Johnstone WFC team-mates for making her transition into the captaincy so smooth.
The Perth midfielder has been filling in for usual skipper Jade McDonald, who is pregnant and won’t feature for the next few months.
Todd admits there were a few nerves when taking over the armband but three wins from the last three has certainly helped.
“It’s been really good to make that step up and shows that Jason [head coach] trusts me,”Todd said.
“It was nice to be asked until Jade comes back into the squad.
“The girls have been great. It can be quite hard to be more authoritative when you are pals with them all.
“I was a little bit nervous at first and wasn’t sure how it was going to be.
“But it’s actually been a big confidence boost for me.
“My nerves are totally different coming into games but with the girls being so good it’s been easy to fill in.
“I’ve not really had to act as a captain yet because everyone has really stepped up. As a team we’ve grown in confidence over the past few weeks.”
Todd played a starring role in last Sunday’s 3-0 victory over Queen’s Park at Lesser Hampden.
She opened the scoring with a great free-kick before doubling the lead in the second half. Hannah Clark added the third late on.
“It was a strange game because I didn’t think I’d played that well when I came off, yet scored two goals,”Todd admitted.
“I’m not usually much of a free-kick specialist! I’m usually just the penalty taker. We didn’t play at our best as a team but we never gave up and managed to take our chances.
“Maybe at 1-0 up at half-time last season, we might have thrown the game. But we really want it this year and showed that.”
The plan is to carry the momentum on when Saints travel west again this week for a league test with Glasgow Women.
Jason McCrindle’s side sit fifth in the table but a win would help reel in both Partick Thistle and Hamilton.
Todd said:“Glasgow Women have just come off the back of a defeat against Partick. But we just like to focus on ourselves.
“Every game is going to be different and you cannot predict anything in this league. Fingers crossed it’s another three points and another few goals.
“We’re sitting in fifth but the points are all very close. Everyone else has finished their games so a win would take us up the table and that would be nice just before Christmas.”