JO POTTER was delighted to come out victorious in her first league derby encounter as Rangers leapfrogged rivals Celtic to go top of the SWPL.
The head coach took charge of the Gers in a league fixture in an Old Firm for the first time and saw her team claim three points in dramatic fashion after a second half comeback.
Speaking to RangersTV after the win at the Excelsior Stadium the boss feels her side were worthy winners given their second half display as they came out with a 2-1 win away from home.
She said: “We are really pleased; I think you can see towards the end that it means a lot for us to win these games. The second half was much improved from the first half, we tweaked a few things at half time, made a change which helped us. I think we were fully deserved winners in the end, creating a few opportunities second half and I think we took the game to them.
“Funnily enough we started to play a little bit more when we went behind. We could have crumbled at those moments, I think you see the character in the players. You can either crumble and concede another goal or you can take the game to them and roll your sleeves up and go for it.
“Thankfully that is the side of the girls that we seen today and that just shows huge character for us. We knew we didn’t need to change much; we knew we could still hurt Celtic going the other way and it was just trying to get the players to believe in that and bring it out on the pitch.”
Potter has praised the character from her side and impact from the substitutes as the Gers responded to going behind through goals from Kirsty Maclean and Rio Hardy to claim the win.
She continued: “Knowing these players we know it is just those moments that can change a game especially against a good team like Celtic. We knew if we got our noses in front that we would be able to maintain that pressure or get back in the game at 1-0 down, that we are always going to create a chance and there is always going to be an opportunity.
“You see the differences of being able to bring substitutes on that makes a difference, that changed the game for us. You have the likes of Rio and Kirsty in and around the box that are flying with goals at the moment, that if they get half a chance it is probably going to be a goal. I was really pleased with the substitutes that came on and made a massive impact as well as the players that managed to get the goals.”
The former England international reflected on her first league experience of the fixture and feels the side must take confidence from the result as the Light Blues now remain the only unbeaten team in the standings heading into the international break.
Potter added: “It was unbelievable, I think our away fans were outstanding today. It was great to see the amount of fans that came down to an away game to support us, we heard them every step of the way. Even 1-0 down they were still pushing the team on and were still encouraging them to do the right things. The fans were huge for us today and I think that really helped the players.
“We have to take confidence because we are the only unbeaten team in the league. We go a point ahead of our rivals, unbeaten in the league and performances are matching those results. It is really nice to see, if there is one thing we can do is take heart from that and kick on from now going into a nice international break then I am not sure what else we could do.”