The Herald on Sunday

Rangers have to prove mettle in title chase after shock loss

- Alison McConnell on women’s football

It is devastatin­g for the player who had already been told she would never play football again after four serious surgeries on her knees

IF a week can be a long time in politics, the same could be said in the world of football. Events over the last seven days have turned the stories of both the male and female leagues on their heads. If Rangers losing ground in the Premiershi­p under Philippe Clement was a surprise as the Ibrox side shipped five points from a possible six to Ross County and Dundee, it was quite the eyebrow raiser to see Jo Potter’s Rangers hand the title initiative to Celtic on Wednesday night with defeat at the Oriam.

For large chunks of this season, a draw against Glasgow City was the only blemish on Rangers’ copybook as they set the pace in the SWPL.

There still remains a feeling that the best resourced squad in the league are the best team in the country and, of course, it could yet pan out that way. With six games to go and with Celtic due to visit them at Broadwood next month, it would be remiss to suggest that Potter’s side have fallen off course.

But after beating the reigning champions 4-1 last weekend in a second- half showing where they simply swatted Leanne Ross’ side away, there is now a real question about how Rangers respond to suddenly finding themselves chasing rather than leading as the final lap looms into view.

Celtic are now two points clear, a position they would have gladly taken in the deepest months of winter. Celtic captain Kelly Clark admitted that as rumours started to circulate about coach Fran Alonso’s departure, the reaction within the dressing room to the speculatio­n originally went from outright dismissal to a quiet sense of foreboding.

The Spaniard’s exit to Houston seemed to suck the energy and belief out of a Celtic side who looked as rocked by the departure and its suddenness on the park as they did off it. New coach Elena Sadiku got off to an inauspicio­us start, losing to Rangers and Glasgow City in her opening two games.

Since then, Celtic have yet to lose a league game. Oddly, the turning point seemed to come at Ibrox in February when a 1-1 draw, a game that left them feeling as though they deserved to take more, was the jolt their season needed. No fans inside the ground added an edge to the occasion but it was the manner in which they felt they had been hard done by on the pitch that appeared to be pivotal in reinstatin­g a belief that had visibly wilted.

This afternoon they will be handed the keys to Celtic Park as they host a Hearts side who will be buoyed by claiming Rangers’ scalp on Wednesday night. Such has been the discord around Celtic and their support this season that this was a hot topic after a reluctance on the board’s part to enable a repeat of last season’s “Celtic End” trial when the women’s side hosted Glasgow City.

The Green Brigade branded the move “vindictive”. It remains to be seen if such pettiness is set aside this afternoon in a game that will be pivotal to the outcome of the title race.

Celtic have never won the SWPL. They came within minutes of it last season when City snatched it in the most thrilling of circumstan­ces at Ibrox with a last-gasp Lauren Davidson winner.

It is worth pointing out that it has never been known in Scotland for a club to do the double, with their men’s and women’s teams winning their respective league titles in the same year.

Is there going to be history? The opportunit­y itself might well be enough to have Celtic singing from the same hymn sheet.

AND ANOTHER THING

FIONA BROWN will need every bit of resilience and strength of character after suffering a fourth ACL injury. The 29-year-old Scotland internatio­nalist returned to Glasgow City in the January transfer window after a decade in Scandinavi­a and has been City’s best player.

There was an immediate sense of foreboding when she went down in last weekend’s defeat to Rangers at Broadwood with Hayley Lauder clearly seen to be comforting Brown as the gravity of her injury was suspected immediatel­y.

It is devastatin­g for the player who had already been told she would never play football again after four serious surgeries on her knees. This will now take that tally to five.

Brown is the latest Scottish female player to fall victim to the same injury in just the last month; Scotland have lost Christy Grimshaw and Sandy MacIver in recent weeks while Caroline Weir and Emma Watson are just returning from their injuries.

Until there is sports science dedicated exclusivel­y to female physiology it will be impossible to get to the root cause of why so many of these injuries are occurring.

AND FINALLY

DUNDEE UNITED have been charged by the SWPL for fielding an ineligible player in last weekend’s 2-1 defeat by Motherwell. It will now be recorded as a 3-0 loss.

A disciplina­ry hearing on Thursday heard that there were “mitigating circumstan­ces” after the unnamed player played for the whole 90 minutes.

Sitting at the foot of the SWPL table where they are three points behind Hamilton Accies, the Tannadice club would have been better served seeking dispensati­on before the game rather than after it.

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 ?? ?? Glasgow City’s Fiona Brown suffered her fourth ACL injury playing against Rangers last week
Glasgow City’s Fiona Brown suffered her fourth ACL injury playing against Rangers last week

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