RANGERS returned to winning ways in the ScottishPower Women’s Premier League with a 2-1 victory over Motherwell at Broadwood this afternoon.
After a fast start and plenty chances created, Brogan Hay was on hand to fire home her second goal of the season to give the hosts a deserved lead at the break, before Kirsty Howat doubled the advantage in the second half.
The visitors halved the deficit through Carla Boyce but ultimately came up short as Leanne Crichton’s team claimed their second success of the campaign ahead of next weekend’s Old Firm derby.
Rangers looked to signal their intent from the off on their Cumbernauld bow for 25/26. After some clever play down the right in the early stages, Kirsty Howat saw her cross form the right hand half cleared to the edge which fell to Liv McLoughlin, but her effort from range whistled just past the post.
It was one way traffic in the early part of the game as the hosts probed to go in front. A corner was whipped in by Lizzie Arnot before the second phase fell for Howat on the left hand side. She looked to pick out strike partner Katie Wilkinson with a sliding pass across goal, but the covering Tegan Browning did brilliantly to make a sliding challenge to stop the forward opening the scoring.
From the resulting corner, the Gers almost took the lead after a delivery from Arnot. A short kick was worked back to the winger and her cross to the back post evaded everyone including Cameron, but flew past the far post.
The hosts were doing everything but score as Jodi McLeary was next to go close. Following good play down the right between her and Brogan Hay, The number 26 saw herself well placed and tried a shot which was heading for the far corner, but the goalkeeper did well to turn the effort round the post.
Arnot went close with an effort after a poor kick out before Rangers’ first half pressure finally paid dividends as they broke the deadlock in the next opening in the game. Working the ball down the left Wilkinson’s pass looked to pick out Howat before it evaded her and fell to Hay unmarked. She had all the time in the world to score as she was originally denied by a point blank stop from Cameron before composing herself to work the ball onto her left foot and roll in the rebound to put the Gers in front.
They continued to dominant in the latter part of the half as Howat was denied by a smart Cameron stop, with the goalkeeper performing well to keep her side in the game as the Light Blues went in at the break a goal to the good.
After the restart the hosts continued to dominate the possession but clear openings became few and far between. Eilidh Austin, operating at centre-back for the third match running, tried her luck from range after advancing forward, but her effort flew well over the top.
The Light Blues did then make their possession count as Kirsty Howat was on hand to open her account for the season to double the advantage. McLoughlin picked out Wilkinson who threaded through a great pass to find the striker who then dispatched the ball well across goal to make it two.
However, from there on in the hosts did give the visitors encouragement with some sloppy pieces of play as Boyce punished a mistake to halve the deficit in North Lanarkshire. McLeary’s back pass sold Jenna Fife short which allowed sub Kodie Hay to pounce, she squared the ball across to the forward to then have the simple task to roll the ball into the empty net to setup a nervous finish for the hosts.
Substitutes Laura Berry and Mia McAulay combined to almost kill the game as the winger saw her left footed shot cannon off the post. Before the Gers then survived a scare late on as Boyce looked to level things up before captain Docherty managed to get round on the cover as the hosts held on to claim a second SWPL win of the campaign.
RANGERS: Fife, Docherty, Hay (McAulay, 63), Howat (Berry, 80), Arnot, Austin (Hill, 63), Griffiths (Shin Ji, 63), McLoughlin (Cruft, 74), McLeary, Connolly-Jackson, Wilkinson
SUBS: Ivarsdottir, Lafaix
MOTHERWELL: Cameron, Watson, Ronald, Collins, Rice, Boyce, Bulloch (Hay, 80), Inglis (Cairns, 64), Burn, Clark (Steele, 86), Browning
SUBS: Thomson, Addie, Denholm
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