Rangers and Glasgow City enjoy thumping wins to stay five points clear at the top
Rangers and Glasgow City scored 12 goals without reply to stay five points clear of Celtic at the top of SWPL1.
Rangers beat Spartans 5-0, while Glasgow City marginally cut their goal difference deficit with a 7-0 win at Forfar Farmington.
Spartans, who arrived in Glasgow with the second best defensive record in the league, went behind after 24 minutes. Nicola Docherty's cross was headed back across goal by Emma Brownlie and Kirsty Howat nodded home.
Rangers added a second six minutes from half-time as Zoe Ness powered a header home.
Former Hibs and Manchester United forward Lizzie Arnot made it three on the hour and the scoreline was boosted by two late goals by Clare Gemmell and Howat again.
Player-of-the-match Howat said: “Spartans defended well and made it difficult for us, but we managed to beat them quite comfortably in the end.”
Earlier in the day Glasgow City beat Forfar Farmington 7-0 at Station Park, with six goals in the second half, including a debut hat-trick for South African winter signing Ode Fulutudilu.
The defending champions had four great chances to score in the opening five minutes and hit the bar four times in the opening 24 minutes.
The deadlock was finally broken just before half-time, when Sharon Wojckik scored following a good move involving Fulutudilu and Hayley Lauder.
The scoreline in a one-sided game took on a more realistic aspect when City scored two more in the first five minutes of the second half.
Both were scored by Fulutudilu following a cross and a corner.
Nicole Robertson made it 4-0 midway through the half with another of the overseas winter signings, Julia Molin, then getting her first goal for the club to make it five without reply.
Two goals in the last eight minutes from Love, who had replaced Lauder at half-time, and Fulitudilu rounded off the scoring on a difficult afternoon for Forfar.
City head coach Scott Booth said: “The first half was one of the most frustrating we've experienced. We played really well and managed to create an incredible amount of chances, but didn’t react well enough inside the box to things that were happening.
“Then we got the goal and talked about what we needed to improve in the second half.
“I’ve got to give a lot of credit to the players because they went out and scored the goals.”
Third place Celtic, who beat Hearts 10-0 in the earlier game between the clubs, scored all their goals in the second half when winning 3-0 at the K-park. Rachel Donaldson and Sarah Ewens, with two, were the scorers.
Hibs, who slipped to sixth following their defeat by Spartans seven days earlier, moved back up to fourth with a 3-2 win over Motherwell.
It looked bad for the home side when Motherwell took the lead through Abby Callaghan midway through the first half. The deficit was quickly wiped out, however, when Amy Gallacher equalised four minutes later.
Colette Cavanagh made it 2-1 for Hibs just before the interval, and almost immediately after it Gallacher added a third. Motherwell got one back three minutes from time.