THERE is plenty to catch the eye as the new SWPL 1 season starts today.
Newly- promoted Aberdeen host Celtic in front of the BBC Alba cameras and the other three games – Rangers against Partick Thistle has been postponed – all have their talking points and attractions.
The same, unfortunately, cannot be said of SWPL 2.
Already reduced to an unsatisfactory seven teams when Thistle were promoted to replace Forfar Farmington in the top flight, it came perilously close to being six in midweek.
My understanding is that St Johnstone had as good as withdrawn from the league on Wednesday night. There appears to be no support from the men’s club – the players are having to train in Dunfermline rather than McDiarmid Park – and the hard-working volunteers behind the side had already been stretched to their limit by the pandemic and the compressed nature of last season’s remaining fixtures.
To have lost two teams in the run-up to the league season would have been disastrous, not just for those involved, but also for the SWPL’s image. It provided yet another crisis for new Scottish Women’s Football chief executive Aileen Campbell, and this time, in an added twist, it involves the club she supports.
Both Campbell and SFA East Region girls’ and women’s club development officer Sam Milne stepped in on Thursday to ensure today’s away game against Boroughmuir Thistle goes ahead. St Johnstone only have 11 of their 16 registered players available because of injuries, but four under-17s will be on the bench.
The much more positive news is that, unlike the player exodus which forced Forfar’s withdrawal from all SWPL competitions, the St Johnstone squad remain committed to the club. There is also the prospect of players being brought in on loan to see out the crisis.
Campbell and Milne are expected to meet the men’s club officials this week to find out if a more productive liaison with the women’s team can be arranged. New personnel are also being brought in behind the scenes to take the burden off exhausted administrative and coaching staff.
Back in SWPL 1, Leanne Crichton will face her old club Glasgow City as playing assistant to new Motherwell head coach Paul Brownlie. Incoming Hearts head coach Eva Olid, who was introduced to the media on Thursday, will have her first league game at home to Hamilton Accies, another of the promoted clubs.
The other top division game is between former ground-sharing rivals Hibernian and Spartans at the Tony Macaroni Arena. They finished fourth and fifth on the same points last season, and both have strengthened their operations over the summer.
AND ANOTHER THING
PEDRO Martinez Losa will name his inaugural Scotland squad on Tuesday. The new head coach will also have to identify a new vice-captain as Kim Little has announced her international retirement.
Little, who travelled to Japan with the Football Association’s Olympic squad, has decided Scotland’s attempt to qualify for the 2023 World Cup is a journey too far. Having played for her country since making her debut as a substitute – against Japan – aged 16 in 2007, it is understandable that she wants to step back and concentrate on her club career.
The midfielder, who played for Martinez Losa at Arsenal, was one of the world’s top players prior to the anterior cruciate ligament injury which kept her out of Euro 2017. She will be a loss on the pitch, obviously, but equally it offers the Spaniard even more of a fresh start and the opportunity to mould the team in his preferred shape.
YET another thing
ANOTHER player Martinez Losa won’t be able to select is Fiona Brown. The Rosengard forward has, devastatingly, suffered a third ACL injury.
Brown is only 26 and had to endure a further long rehab following a non-ACL knee injury in 2019. While her attacking threat on the pitch is matched by her effervescence and good nature off it, her positive mentality will be tested to the limit by this latest setback.
However, the former Celtic and Glasgow City winger has already proved three times that she has the fortitude to recover and play for Scotland again.
AND FINALLY
CLARE Shine's brilliantly executed volley has given Glasgow City every chance of qualifying for the Champions League group stage at Broadwood on Wednesday. It was an uncharacteristically poor first half performance from City at the Stade de Geneve, but Servette also looked a limited side.
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