Cuthbert in dreamland as she thrives at Chelsea
HAS any Scottish footballer enjoyed a more fulfilling early career than Erin Cuthbert? The Chelsea midfielder will not be 23 until July, but even if she retired tomorrow her grandchildren would never tire of her stories.
Tonight in Gothenburg Cuthbert will be in her club’s squad for the Champions League final against Barcelona. This will add to her Euro 2017 and 2019 World Cup experiences.
The domestic honours are also mounting. Chelsea retained their FA WSL title last Sunday following a 5-0 win against Reading. That was her fourth league winners’ medal in England, adding to two with Glasgow City, and there are several cup wins on both sides of the border also.
Given the quality and depth of Emma Hayes’ squad there is no guarantee Cuthbert will start today, nor even that she will come off the bench. But her previous appearances in the tournament guarantee that her abundant medal collection will have a gold or silver addition from the world’s most prestigious club competition.
In normal circumstances her biggest fans, parents Jacqueline and Steve, would have been sitting proudly in the Gamla Ullevi. The pandemic has rendered that impossible, and instead they will be watching on television at their Ayrshire home, possibly in the company of Cuthbert’s older sister Emma.
Cuthbert said on social media that reaching the final has landed her in dreamland. This is not surprising when one of the players who stoked her childhood ambitions was Julie Fleeting, Scotland’s record goalscorer, who is also from Ayrshire, and won Europe’s premier club competition with Arsenal in 2007 when it was called the UEFA Women’s Cup.
AS has so often been the case over the last 15 years, the destination of the Scottish Building Society SWPL1 title is again in Glasgow City’s hands. Two intense, physical, games in three days against closest rivals Rangers and Celtic provided trademark displays of grit and resilience from the defending champions.
The 2-0 win on the pristine grass pitch at the Rangers Training Academy last Sunday was followed by a 0-0 scoreline on the K-Park’s much criticised artificial surface. Two away games, four points, and now the realistic prospect of 14-in-a-row titles.
The bonus ball for City is they have completed five of the six games against their two title rivals. As have a much improved Celtic. Rangers have matches to come against Celtic next Sunday and City on June 2.
The title is City’s to lose. If they win their next five games, starting at home against Forfar Farmington today, they will be champions before they meet Rangers on the last day of the season.
Spartans and Hibernian, who are fourth and fifth, have the potential to take points off the top three on a good day. But, having negotiated their two most dangerous games safely, the odds are overwhelmingly in Glasgow City’s favour.
BROGAN HAY’S footballing journey has not been as spectacular as that of her former Scotland Under-19 team-mate Cuthbert, but there are signs that full-time training at Rangers is developing her into a player with national team potential.
Kevin Murphy, the Rangers assistant head coach who also worked with Hay in Scotland youth teams, said: “Brogan has always been a player with great pace, but what she’s added to her game now is a greater understanding of what she’s doing and why.”
Hay, whose sister Kodie plays for Motherwell, admits it had been a worrying time at the end of 2019 when Rangers parted company with most of the squad to facilitate their full-time plans. The winger and club captain Clare Gemmell were among the few retained.
It must, therefore, have helped her case greatly that she won the SBS player-of-themonth award towards the end of that year, at the very time when the big decisions were being made.
“I’d just come back from an injury, so it was quite a confidence booster to get the award after being out for such a long time,” Hay said. “I ruptured ligaments in my ankle and was out for about 10 months in total.”
Having become a big player in the Rangers side since the league re-started on April 4, Hay was rewarded with her second SBS player-of-themonth award on Thursday.
Having negotiated their two most dangerous games safely, the odds are in City’s favour
THE three Glasgow clubs in SWPL2 learned late on Friday that they will not be able to resume contact training as expected tomorrow.
Whether this will affect the league’s re-start on June 6 is not yet clear.