Latest / A Level Playing Field / World Cup Belief, Title Race Heat & PFA Team of the Year | A Level Playing Field I Episode 17

Transcript

World Cup Belief, Title Race Heat & PFA Team of the Year | A Level Playing Field I Episode 17 · A Level Playing Field

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_02: Welcome to a level playing field, sponsored by Nutmeg Magazine, the Scottish football quarterly.
• 0:07
  SPEAKER_02: If you're looking for your next great football read, the World Cup special issue of Nutmeg Magazine is available to purchase now.
• 0:14
  SPEAKER_02: You can order your copy at nutmegmagazine.co.uk to enjoy stories from Scotland's adventures on the greatest stage.
• 0:22
  SPEAKER_01: Welcome back to another episode of A Level Playing Field.
• 0:24
  SPEAKER_01: I'm Cheryl Smith joined here as ever by Alison McConnell.
• 0:28
  SPEAKER_01: It's been international break, Alison, but not really a break.
• 0:33
  SPEAKER_01: But we've had those Scotland games on that we're going to speak about.
• 0:36
  SPEAKER_01: We thought it'd be a good chance for us to have a chat about that and the domestic season restarting and the things that have happened in between since we last had a chat.
• 0:46
  SPEAKER_01: Obviously, everyone's away playing for their country and taking a wee sneaky break on holiday as well.
• 0:50
  SPEAKER_01: So we thought we would do that this week.
• 0:53
  SPEAKER_01: We've not had a chat for a couple of weeks, but we've thought we'd get into that.
• 0:56
  SPEAKER_01: So we'll get to that.
• 0:58
  SPEAKER_01: How has your international break been?
• 1:00
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, there are there's a misnomer in the word break.
• 1:04
  SPEAKER_02: Yes, uh, holidays are for other people, I do believe.
• 1:07
  SPEAKER_02: But uh yeah, it's uh it's been a change is as good as the rest, I do believe.
• 1:11
  SPEAKER_02: So, yes, we've been writing about about other things, and uh and I think it's always a bit more pleasurable to cover when the team are doing okay, and I think you'd have to say that uh it would be with some cautious optimism that we would look at what Millis and Giatta's side have been doing.
• 1:31
  SPEAKER_02: I think there's I think maybe feel as though they they could have come away with with more than just the two points from the Belgium games, but I think when you put it in a context, I I don't think they were the worst results in the world.
• 1:42
  SPEAKER_01: No, it's like there is a lot of positivity, I think, around the manager and the team just now when they've they're unbeaten in this World Cup qualifying group so far, and they're sitting top ahead of Belgium on goal difference.
• 1:54
  SPEAKER_01: It was um it was obviously two draws we would have liked to have got a win in one of those ones, but when you actually look at it, you've got to remember the the standard of player they're coming up against, and the team is not young in years, but young, it's in its infancy in terms of under the manager.
• 2:10
  SPEAKER_01: I think she'd celebrated her one-year anniversary just uh earlier in April.
• 2:14
  SPEAKER_01: But it's only you say a year, but it's only really three or four camps, and she's not got that much time with them.
• 2:19
  SPEAKER_01: So I think they need to take all those things into account.
• 2:21
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, and I think too, she inherited a team who had been relegated from the Nations League, who had just missed out again on a third successive tournament, who had not turned up essentially when it got to the the playoffs.
• 2:36
  SPEAKER_02: So I think she had quite a job on her hands just to change the mentality within the group to maybe pick them up a bit from where they were to try and instill a bit of belief and a bit of confidence and a bit of conviction.
• 2:50
  SPEAKER_02: And there was a really interesting remark from her actually at Easter Road, and we were both there last Tuesday night.
• 2:56
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, obviously, Kathleen McGovern scored, I think it was a 95th minute, really deep into added time to rescue a point.
• 3:03
  SPEAKER_02: And and she said, even in the the dressing room amongst the players themselves, there was a chat that this the eking out a result and a point might not have happened just very recently, that they didn't really have the the wherewithal to go and and turn that turn a negative into something, just take something from the game.
• 3:24
  SPEAKER_02: And anyone who watched that game at Easter Road would struggle to to deny them that they were worthy of something.
• 3:32
  SPEAKER_02: They had so many chances within that game, and that of course leads to another headache and another issue because there still is they they still need to find a way to be more clinical in front of Go.
• 3:44
  SPEAKER_02: I think that's goes without saying, and it's something that she will be giving consideration to, I'm sure, between now and the next camp in June.
• 3:51
  SPEAKER_02: However, what you are seeing, I think, is a team that is going in the right direction.
• 3:57
  SPEAKER_01: And we obviously um we we were both at Easter Road and on the way through to Easter Road in your soccer maw mobile, you want to call it that.
• 4:06
  SPEAKER_01: Uh the team lines came in, and I had I don't know if you remember, but I'd said to uh Sandy McHeavers in goals and Lee Ibsen's on the bench, and it was a bit of a I don't know about you, but I was I was a bit surprised, not because I mean she's a good goalkeeper and she's obviously played for Scotland before, but the magnitude of the the game is game three and four in the group.
• 4:24
  SPEAKER_01: She obviously then went on to play in the other the uh the game in Belgium and the manager had said after that one specifically that she made saves that is a base for you to get a win.
• 4:35
  SPEAKER_01: They obviously didn't get the win, we couldn't do it at the other end, couldn't quite do it to get the three points.
• 4:40
  SPEAKER_01: But when this Knicks camp comes around and that team line is out for the first game against Israel, do you think the Lee Gibson will be back in there, or do you think Sandy McHaver's actually had such a good camp that she's sort of cemented that place just over two games?
• 4:55
  SPEAKER_02: I think it's been between the two of them for quite some time.
• 4:58
  SPEAKER_02: I think there's been a bit of chopping and changing for a while, but I think it would be really harsh now that she if she didn't start in the next game because I actually thought she probably kept him in the game at points in Belgium.
• 5:13
  SPEAKER_02: I would say she had three good saves, two very, very good saves within that game.
• 5:20
  SPEAKER_02: And Scotland rode her luck a couple of points.
• 5:22
  SPEAKER_02: I'm just thinking towards the end of that first half, Belgium hit the hit the post and then scrambled shots clear, but I think I I I would be amazed if she didn't start uh for the next game against Israel.
• 5:37
  SPEAKER_02: I think she's done more than enough.
• 5:38
  SPEAKER_02: And I I say that without apportioning any blame.
• 5:42
  SPEAKER_02: I don't think Lee Gibson has really done much wrong, and in actual fact, I think she's been a very, very good goalkeeper for Scotland.
• 5:49
  SPEAKER_02: I do think when you look through the squad, I think that Melissa Andreata has tried to freshen things up in lots of ways.
• 5:58
  SPEAKER_01: She's had to try to make changes, bring in she's brought in a lot of young players and started a lot of young players.
• 6:05
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, absolutely.
• 6:06
  SPEAKER_02: And and Sandy McKeever isn't exclusive to uh Andreata, she was in and around a scored prior to that.
• 6:13
  SPEAKER_02: But uh yeah, I I just think on the basis of the last two performances, I wouldn't imagine that the Govs go anywhere else now.
• 6:20
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and then when you look at the other end of the pitch, you'd mentioned her earlier Kathleen McGovern, she's got six goals in eight games for Scotland, I think it is, and she obviously scored that very, very late equaliser at Eastern Road where the smoke was coming off your laptop.
• 6:35
  SPEAKER_01: And I was like, I'm just gonna leave you to just do that.
• 6:37
  SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna go to the freshman.
• 6:39
  SPEAKER_02: It's probably probably wise not to try and enter the small talk with me when I'm like I've got like well you tell me at the start of every game I can't speak to you, so it's really it feels good if it's nice when the live deadlines like in them yeah, you're entirely turning around a body of work for people within like three or four minutes.
• 6:58
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, it's um yeah, so 95th minute goals are for other people to enjoy.
• 7:04
  SPEAKER_02: They're not they're not for those of us who are writing late into the night.
• 7:09
  SPEAKER_02: However, uh that's I I jest, of course.
• 7:12
  SPEAKER_02: Uh I think uh for Scotland to keep themselves top of the group, albeit on goal difference things, four points four goals of a difference now between themselves and Belgium.
• 7:22
  SPEAKER_02: Melissa Andreata had said she wasn't overly concerned about what Belgium might do against Luxembourg because the expectation or the anticipation is that they will go and do what Scotland done against Luxembourg, Scotland on aggregate over the two games, scored 12 goals against them.
• 7:40
  SPEAKER_02: So they could find themselves toppled off that that uh place at the summit, but regardless of what happens, Scotland need to qualify for the World Cup by going through a playoff system, regardless of how how this group shapes up.
• 7:57
  SPEAKER_02: So they're gonna have to be mentally prepared.
• 8:01
  SPEAKER_02: It'll be four playoff games, they're gonna have to be in the right frame of mind, and that has been the feeling across recent campaigns.
• 8:09
  SPEAKER_02: You go back to that game against the Republic of Ireland at Hamden, and then you go back more recently under Pedro Martinez Losa in Scotland Field to make the European Championships, and they were such insipid performances, they were so tentative, they lacked any real belief at all.
• 8:27
  SPEAKER_02: They were Scotland teams who choked when they got to that stage, and I think her big job now is and she has said it, and players have told us when we've spoken to them in interviews, that every game in this group has to be treated as a playoff tie.
• 8:43
  SPEAKER_02: You want to create this culture of winning, of not dropping points, of scoring goals, and it's not going to come overnight, it doesn't come on the back of one camp or or a couple of games.
• 8:54
  SPEAKER_02: It it is going to take time.
• 8:56
  SPEAKER_02: I think you can see the fruits of our work just now.
• 9:00
  SPEAKER_02: I think it looks positive from an outside perspective.
• 9:04
  SPEAKER_02: I have to think say I I find her very easy to deal with.
• 9:10
  SPEAKER_02: Obviously, we deal in a media capacity, but I find her quite straight talking, and I think as players, you would welcome that.
• 9:18
  SPEAKER_02: That there is a very clear instruction.
• 9:20
  SPEAKER_02: I think you can see there's a very clear way that she wants a team to play.
• 9:24
  SPEAKER_02: She comes across as hugely enthusiastic.
• 9:28
  SPEAKER_01: She's basically pretty much Scottish by this point, I would say.
• 9:33
  SPEAKER_02: I think she comes across as uh as very, very enthused about what she's doing.
• 9:37
  SPEAKER_02: And she had to be like, you know, we we've had her on her podcast when she told us she had left a real young family, left her partner to come to the the other side of the world.
• 9:47
  SPEAKER_02: No one's doing that on a on a whim or or going just to, oh, you know, I'll dip my toe and hear you're coming and you are coming with a belief that you can turn things around.
• 9:57
  SPEAKER_02: And I think Scotland at the minute look as though they're they're on a fairly positive journey.
• 10:06
  SPEAKER_02: I albeit that I would qualify that by saying there do remain issues, like there do a lot of the fundamentals that undermine recent campaigns are still issues.
• 10:16
  SPEAKER_02: I still think they can look very soft at the back defensively.
• 10:19
  SPEAKER_02: What about up front?
• 10:20
  SPEAKER_02: And I well, I do think that Kathleen McGovern is young, she's raw.
• 10:26
  SPEAKER_02: I think she has improved dramatically uh across recent years.
• 10:29
  SPEAKER_02: I think even if you look at the last two years, Kathleen McGovern has changed her entire body shape.
• 10:35
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, you were saying that.
• 10:37
  SPEAKER_02: She has obviously worked her socks off.
• 10:39
  SPEAKER_02: She's had a fairly she's she's not had a straight journey to where she's got to.
• 10:46
  SPEAKER_02: She's been a lot of disappointments along the way in a young career.
• 10:49
  SPEAKER_02: Looked as though she wasn't going to make a career within football.
• 10:52
  SPEAKER_02: The move from hearts to hips, just uh she just burst into burst into life.
• 10:57
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, and you can see I think I'm I'm sure she told me before she worked with a personal trainer, she's done one-on-one training.
• 11:03
  SPEAKER_02: And I remember speaking to her last year, just uh I'd given her a phone to to do an interview, and she'd literally just come off the plane.
• 11:11
  SPEAKER_02: She'd been away, I think uh uh with friends.
• 11:14
  SPEAKER_02: I can't remember she was away on holiday squat, she was away doing her five K.
• 11:18
  SPEAKER_02: And she'd done her she'd been away enjoying her holiday and out, doing her uh a morning run every single morning, and I think there is a there's something to be um to applaud in that discipline and that absolute uh you know marrying into the professionalism of what you're doing across a really short career, and I think you can see it in her performances, but she is still young, yeah, she is still quite inexperienced at international level.
• 11:45
  SPEAKER_02: But I think the goals that she scored will be hugely important for her in terms of her confidence.
• 11:51
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, I do sometimes wonder if it would help maybe to have someone just playing off her a wee bit, but yeah, I I think scoring goals is is has been Scotland's problem across I would say the last three qualification campaigns, creating chances, just not getting the ball into the final third third, and then when it is going in there not being able to do something with it, you can see that they are creating chances, which I I think is a massive step in the right direction.
• 12:23
  SPEAKER_01: She missed a few she missed a few chances, and Melissa Andreat had said after the game, you know, she's very hard on herself and she'll be kind of beating herself up, and then she came into the press room and we asked her, and she she obviously just wants to do really well, and it's like you say, you forget that she's so young and she's leading the line for Scotland, her trying to qualify for a World Cup, and she's scoring the goals.
• 12:44
  SPEAKER_02: And it's also quite a new environment for her, and you're going in to play against very experienced, seasoned internationals.
• 12:52
  SPEAKER_02: There's a number of those Scotland players who are who will be sitting not too far off, 100 caps.
• 12:59
  SPEAKER_02: You know, you're going in, you're sharing our dressing room with the likes of Erin Cuthbert.
• 13:03
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, and she's sitting on eight, she's less than ten.
• 13:05
  SPEAKER_02: Uh Lee Gibson, real stalwarts of this Scotland side, people who have made history with the national team and taking them to their their first European championships, taking them to their first World Cup.
• 13:18
  SPEAKER_02: So I would imagine that that would take a wee bit of getting used to going in and not being overawed by being in that kind of environment and having to find your feet in it and having to find some belief, which is why I think the goals are probably so important for her.
• 13:33
  SPEAKER_02: I think it was notable at Easter Road in that Belgium game.
• 13:36
  SPEAKER_02: I think you could see her getting frustrated with herself when she was missing chances, and and she did like you know that that happens to strikers, it happens in every uh at every level of of football, international or not, where where there are going to be games where you're not clinical, where you're allowing chances to pass you by, and you could see that it was starting to get into her head.
• 13:59
  SPEAKER_02: You could see it was starting to to i and that's a a skill in itself to be able to it I I think probably comes with experience of being able just to to ride out, which is why though I think that goal was probably so important for her.
• 14:12
  SPEAKER_02: And that goal when it came that night, obviously we were super busy and you know we're writing.
• 14:18
  SPEAKER_02: I hadn't actually appreciated it's actually a very good goal when you see it back at the time and you're watching it in in real time and you see it quickly, and you're I'm obviously juggling 400 march reports, like uh you're only seeing it first through and when you go back and watch it back again.
• 14:33
  SPEAKER_02: I actually thought she took the goal really well.
• 14:35
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it was a good it was a good cross, and also she actually still had a lot to do on the other end.
• 14:39
  SPEAKER_01: It wasn't just a tap in yet.
• 14:40
  SPEAKER_01: No, you're right.
• 14:41
  SPEAKER_01: Um one of the things that's come out of that camp, I think you were working on this yesterday in one of your many hats.
• 14:46
  SPEAKER_01: The Scotland have um moved up two places in the FIFA ranking, so where are we now?
• 14:51
  SPEAKER_01: Twenty-four, is it twenty-four?
• 14:54
  SPEAKER_02: Uh I can't remember what the actual number is.
• 14:57
  SPEAKER_02: I think it might be twenty-two actually.
• 14:59
  SPEAKER_02: Um I can't remember what the actual number ranking is, but um but yeah, they they've moved up a couple of places, which I think is not to be uh, you know.
• 15:08
  SPEAKER_02: I I I I don't think you could you could overlook the significance of that for the other.
• 15:12
  SPEAKER_01: Well it's the right direction, um right direction to go up the way.
• 15:16
  SPEAKER_01: Um probably deserved that they're unbeaten in this campaign so far.
• 15:23
  SPEAKER_01: We would like to get another couple of wins, and obviously there's the the double header against Israel in June that that will be coming up, and that'll be a good chance for them to get some some victories on the board.
• 15:36
  SPEAKER_01: You got the you got the number?
• 15:39
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, it just takes away.
• 15:41
  SPEAKER_01: Apologies for putting you on the spot there.
• 15:43
  SPEAKER_01: I really should have uh written it down and didn't.
• 15:46
  SPEAKER_01: But yeah, starting to wear many hats like you.
• 15:49
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I I I just think I I do think it illustrates the fact that they are going in the the the right direction, but yeah, you're right, they're 24th.
• 15:58
  SPEAKER_02: Twenty fourth we went up to places and just Belgium are sitting 18th, you know, like when when you consider who they've played against.
• 16:06
  SPEAKER_02: Uh so you know, I think when you you you put that game in its context, then I think you have to be fairly pleased at coming away from it unscathed.
• 16:16
  SPEAKER_02: I do think particular the Easter Road one is I think the one that they'll look back on and think we we should have won it.
• 16:21
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, and it was a cheap goal that they gave away too, which again we'll go back, and you think that has been an achievely seal at at times giving away soft goals.
• 16:30
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and it's now away from uh Scotland, I think, in the time since we last did a podcast.
• 16:35
  SPEAKER_01: The PFA nominees, uh sorry, no the PFA, SWL SWPL team of the season has uh has been revealed.
• 16:44
  SPEAKER_01: The nominees for the player of the year and the young player of the year will be revealed on April 27th at the Hilton.
• 16:49
  SPEAKER_01: But the team that's come out, I'm just gonna reach out the team and we can just have a wee chat about who's who's in and who's not.
• 16:55
  SPEAKER_01: So Lee Gibson, Emma Lawton, the only Celtic inclusion, Erin Husband, Danique, Pema, Amy Muir, May Croft, Ellie Shore, Kim Shinji, Georgia Timms, Katie Wilkinson, and Nicole Kozlova.
• 17:08
  SPEAKER_01: So we've got Glasgow City, Rangers, Hearts, uh, and obviously Emma Lawton of Celtic in there.
• 17:15
  SPEAKER_01: Is there anywhere anyone in there that is a surprise to you, or is there anyone missing that you thought would have made it in, do you think?
• 17:22
  SPEAKER_02: Um I think it's a fairly fair reflection of the teams who have basically been the most consistent across the course of the the campaign.
• 17:37
  SPEAKER_02: Um I did wonder whether or not Lisa Forrest might have gotten.
• 17:44
  unknown: Yeah.
• 17:45
  SPEAKER_01: That's a good show.
• 17:46
  SPEAKER_02: Uh I think she's had a very good campaign.
• 17:49
  SPEAKER_02: I think she's really cemented her place in the first team this season.
• 17:53
  SPEAKER_02: I think she's been in and around it, obviously, for a couple of seasons, but I think she she's had a very good campaign this year.
• 18:00
  SPEAKER_02: Um Celtic, I think, have underperformed again.
• 18:05
  SPEAKER_02: I think that's reflected.
• 18:06
  SPEAKER_02: You've got Emma Lawton in there.
• 18:08
  SPEAKER_01: But she always seems to be she in the last couple of seasons, she seems to be the one that's a standout.
• 18:14
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 18:15
  SPEAKER_01: And a Celtic side that hasn't hasn't achieved, and obviously you have to caveat it by the fact that they've changed managers in January, so that's going to have an effect.
• 18:23
  SPEAKER_01: And Grant Scott's come in, and it's I would imagine he would probably want to get a transfer window where he can get what he'd call his team.
• 18:31
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, absolutely.
• 18:32
  SPEAKER_02: Well, he got he had that uh January window, but he was just in the door.
• 18:36
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, you come in and you're you're in the door, and I'm sure he'll have an idea in the sub the summer about what he wants to go and go and do, and I think just now he's still managing Elena Sadakou's team essentially.
• 18:50
  SPEAKER_02: I think he'll probably have an idea in the summer about what he needs.
• 18:54
  SPEAKER_02: I think for me there's a very significant question about leadership within that Celtic team.
• 18:59
  SPEAKER_02: I'm not sure that there are enough leaders on the pitch in games.
• 19:05
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 19:06
  SPEAKER_01: No, it's a fair, it is a fair point.
• 19:08
  SPEAKER_01: Um obviously the Scotland the cat the camp is over and it's going to be back to domestic action, so we've got five league games left in the run into this title, which always seems to just be absolutely bonkers at this stage of the season.
• 19:22
  SPEAKER_01: Um it starts on Friday.
• 19:24
  SPEAKER_01: Rangers are against Hearts at Broadwood.
• 19:27
  SPEAKER_01: This is something that was came out last week that I just wanted to get your thoughts on.
• 19:32
  SPEAKER_01: But the game obviously was moved from Ibrooks to Broadwood.
• 19:36
  SPEAKER_01: The time was changed to 4.30, which is not ideal.
• 19:40
  SPEAKER_01: You know, you can see if you look online, fans and things people are not happy about it.
• 19:44
  SPEAKER_01: It's obviously wildly inconvenient for people who work to five or six o'clock and want to bring kids and to get to Broadwood as well, because it's not close, it's not obviously central belt and Ibrooks is, but I think for me it just highlights.
• 19:56
  SPEAKER_01: I read the statement that Rangers have put out, and it you know, it's fair to them because it's not a clash with the men's team, but because of the post-split fixtures, they essentially want to keep the pitch in tip-top condition.
• 20:09
  SPEAKER_01: The Rangers men's team are going for a title as well, and that's why they've done it.
• 20:13
  SPEAKER_01: They the big thing for me is they've gone to Broadwood, and because they don't own the stadium, they then have to abide by pre-bookings at Broadwood, so they have to have it at half past four, and it's just it's just not conducive for people to you know come to the stadium and watch the game.
• 20:30
  SPEAKER_01: They're they're struggling, as it is all the clubs, to get ma and you know max capacity crowds in and things like that just don't really help.
• 20:39
  SPEAKER_01: But I don't really know what the answer is except for them having their own stadiums, but then how viable is that really?
• 20:45
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I know.
• 20:46
  SPEAKER_02: I think it's a major headache.
• 20:48
  SPEAKER_02: I think it just shines a light again on the fact of where the women's game is, that you're always going to play second fiddle, and it's not even so much that you're playing second fiddle.
• 21:00
  SPEAKER_02: I think few people would argue with the fact that keeping the pitch pristine is a necessary part of it for a team that are going to to win a title and are challenging for a title.
• 21:12
  SPEAKER_02: And this is a Rangers team who have won one title in the last 14 seasons, so you know how much weight is on that and how much pressure is on it, and everything that goes with it in terms of not just uh winning a championship here but also access to the possibility of Champions League football and everything that that that means.
• 21:38
  SPEAKER_02: So you you you understand it's a fine margins, obviously.
• 21:41
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, you understand that it's not just a an emotional reason, but there's also a very valid economic reason for for that decision to have been made.
• 21:49
  SPEAKER_02: However, I think the women's team can still feel very aggrieved and very short changed.
• 21:55
  SPEAKER_02: But the going to Broadwood It's so difficult to encourage people to come out, to come along, and half past four makes it almost prohibitive for people.
• 22:09
  SPEAKER_02: Most of us are in a position where we work, where you're you're juggling various commitments.
• 22:15
  SPEAKER_02: If there was a men's team gate first team game played at half past four on a Friday afternoon, people would struggle to make it from work.
• 22:22
  SPEAKER_02: So I think it just makes it harder.
• 22:26
  SPEAKER_02: You're having to do this, you're having to try and grow the women's game and try and drum up interest in what should be a massive occasion.
• 22:37
  SPEAKER_02: There is one point between these two teams at the top of the league.
• 22:40
  SPEAKER_02: Eva Olive's team have never won a title before.
• 22:44
  SPEAKER_01: Rangers could go and get their hands on the title for the first time in what four seasons.uk.
• 23:27
  SPEAKER_02: My player of the week, sponsored by Nutmeg, is Sandy McKeever.
• 23:32
  SPEAKER_02: I thought she had a number of really good saves, particularly in that second leg over in Leuven on Tuesday night.
• 23:40
  SPEAKER_02: I think she was really fundamental to Scotland going and taking a point that keeps them at the top of group B4.
• 23:47
  SPEAKER_01: That was our Nutmeg magazine player of the week.
• 23:50
  SPEAKER_01: For more great football writing and to order the latest issue, visit nutmegmagazine.co.uk.
• 23:55
  SPEAKER_01: I think you're right before um we started recording this when I was um on the way here.
• 24:00
  SPEAKER_01: I was watching an interview.
• 24:02
  SPEAKER_01: Um I was parked at the side of the road, by the way.
• 24:04
  SPEAKER_01: I was not watching YouTube when I was driving, but I was watching an interview with Sonia Bombaster and she was talking about the news that's come out that Chelsea women are going to start playing their games at Stamford Bridge next season.
• 24:15
  SPEAKER_01: And the way that she was speaking about it was about the ambition that the club has.
• 24:19
  SPEAKER_01: She's obviously very well backed in that team and that club, and the women's side is very successful.
• 24:24
  SPEAKER_01: We know that.
• 24:25
  SPEAKER_01: But she was talking about the ambition that the club have, and they've outgrown a stadium that's I think it's just under 5,000 or something like that.
• 24:33
  SPEAKER_01: Sold out, um it's sold out every home game.
• 24:36
  SPEAKER_01: So they've made the move, and Stanford Bridge is obviously 41,000.
• 24:39
  SPEAKER_01: But it's you kind of look over the fence with envy when you read things like that and you hear how she speaks about it because that's obviously coming from above the way that she's been backed and the way that the club are backing the women's branch of the club.
• 24:51
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, and Rangers tried to do something similar at the start of the season because at the start of the season Rangers had said we're we're going to use IBRC as as much as we can.
• 24:59
  SPEAKER_02: Was it not a guaranteed 11 home games or something?
• 25:03
  SPEAKER_02: I'm not sure if there was a guarantee, but it was a it was as long as it didn't clash.
• 25:07
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, let's try and go and make IROX our home, and then obviously you don't know the nature of the post spot fixtures, you don't know dates, you don't know confirmation of those dates until nearer the time.
• 25:20
  SPEAKER_02: So I have a an element of sympathy for that, but you have to say the optics of it look appalling.
• 25:26
  SPEAKER_02: They absolutely look appalling.
• 25:30
  SPEAKER_02: It leaves you with no other option, really, just to conclude that it's almost like your women's team is a box ticking exercise.
• 25:37
  SPEAKER_02: It's there for for optics and nothing more, essentially.
• 25:41
  SPEAKER_02: I think uh I think if you were a Rangers player, I think you would be entitled to feel particularly aggrieved about it.
• 25:49
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, absolutely.
• 25:50
  SPEAKER_01: And the the game itself, obviously, um I think you and I will both be there.
• 25:55
  SPEAKER_01: So it's 4 30 at Broadwood on Friday, and like you say, there's only a point between them, and Hearts are in the lead.
• 26:01
  SPEAKER_01: They went top after that break.
• 26:04
  SPEAKER_01: How how do you think both teams will approach this one?
• 26:06
  SPEAKER_01: I don't know if it'll be they're getting to the point where any any error could be could be critical to their title chances.
• 26:14
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, and the thing with with this spot is that you've got so many teams round about you who can beat one another.
• 26:20
  SPEAKER_02: Uh Glasgow City have been a top this league for the bulk of the the campaign.
• 26:25
  SPEAKER_02: I I I would not rule them out of it at all.
• 26:28
  SPEAKER_02: But it it's an interesting question how they'll go about it because I watched an interview with Eva Olid in the aftermath of the win over Glasgow City at Peter Sell.
• 26:37
  SPEAKER_02: Now she'd never beaten Glasgow City, they won 1-0.
• 26:41
  SPEAKER_02: If you ever get a chance, or for those of you who might have been at the game or anyone who watched the highlights, Glasgow City dominated that game, they should have won it, and Hart nicked it with one with one goal, and what she had said was essentially that they had gone there before with a game plan to go toe-to-toe with Glasgow City, set out the way they always play and go and attack the game, and they lost 5-0.
• 27:09
  SPEAKER_02: So she came away from that and she just thought, okay, we're gonna sit in, we're gonna be the antithesis of the team that we've been for so much of this season, and they sat in, they just tried to frustrate Glasgow City, they just tried to defend and then uh utilise set pieces, quite breakaways, and that's how they got their their goal.
• 27:31
  SPEAKER_02: So although it deviated from the kind of football that they've played all season, they got their reward, and it's the first time they'd beaten Glasgow City.
• 27:39
  SPEAKER_02: So I think the temptation will be to do something similar at Broadwood on Friday night.
• 27:47
  SPEAKER_02: I think they'll believe as though they can score, but I I I would expect them not to go all out and in a in an attacking sense.
• 27:55
  SPEAKER_02: I think they'll try and contain Rangers and hit them on the break.
• 27:59
  SPEAKER_01: I suppose it's it's a sign of a good coach when you play to the strengths against the opposition.
• 28:04
  SPEAKER_01: And if Harts win the league at the end of the season and Eva Olived the parts for a league trophy, no one will care if they win every game between them and then one-nil.
• 28:11
  SPEAKER_02: So exactly, exactly.
• 28:13
  SPEAKER_02: She could make a bit of fist rate, and you would have to say she's a coach who has improved that team season after season.
• 28:19
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 28:19
  SPEAKER_02: Every season that she's beat.
• 28:20
  SPEAKER_02: This is her fifth season, she's improved them.
• 28:24
  SPEAKER_01: What do you think of um because I don't think we've spoken about this on the podcast, but what do you think of well, the the news that she's going to be leaving the club at the end of the season and like the timing of that coming out?
• 28:34
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, it was interesting.
• 28:35
  SPEAKER_02: The t the timing really took everyone aback.
• 28:38
  SPEAKER_02: I understand that she had told the players in the aftermath of the win over Glasgow City that she was leaving at the end of the season.
• 28:45
  SPEAKER_02: And I think then the club confirmed that now my my suspicion would be that there would be a fear, it would be leaked, and it would come out elsewhere.
• 28:55
  SPEAKER_02: So there's obviously been uh conversations that have been had and a decision made to bring it out into the open, but I don't think that takes away from the bizarress of the timing given what they could go and do.
• 29:08
  SPEAKER_02: I I can't imagine anyone just now if if suddenly Denny McInnes had said I'll be I'll be leaving at the at the end of the season that people would appreciate the timing of that result because of how distract distracting that it could be.
• 29:22
  SPEAKER_02: It does lead me to believe that I I think it was a mutual decision between the club and her, and I think it points to the fact that it's a club and a team that have been quite well funded in her time.
• 29:42
  SPEAKER_02: And I would now guess that there might be some cuts coming.
• 29:46
  SPEAKER_02: I know that a number of first team players there uh look as though they could be going elsewhere after the summer, and I just wonder if they're looking at it and thinking we need to start cutting the wage bill and we need to start reducing costs for the women's team.
• 30:01
  SPEAKER_02: And from her perspective, you would say then, well, I've got this team to the top of the league.
• 30:06
  SPEAKER_02: I've taken them to places that they've not been before, there might not have been silverware, but it's absolutely you know, I've I've lifted them off the bottom of the table when I came in.
• 30:16
  SPEAKER_02: We're now sitting at the top, uh, and I think maybe there has been an element of frustration there about not now being able to kick on, regardless of how it plays out across the last five games, about not being able to kick on from that.
• 30:29
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and she will be hoping obviously that she was out a title winner, and it would be some end to the story, but then there's so many different narratives.
• 30:37
  SPEAKER_01: So, all the clubs it would be some story if Leanne Crichton won it in her first year as manager when she'd been assistant before Leanne Ross, they've led the full way.
• 30:47
  SPEAKER_01: Um so it will be interesting to see how it plays out.
• 30:49
  SPEAKER_01: Apart from that, uh Rangers Hearts game, there's also Hib Celtic Partik Thistle against Glasgow City, and then in the Sunday, uh the bottom half it's Aberdeen Montrose and Hamilton Motherwell.
• 31:00
  SPEAKER_01: Just before we finish and wrap up, how do you how do you see this league title going?
• 31:06
  SPEAKER_01: Are we having another uh are we having another last day drama?
• 31:10
  SPEAKER_01: We've we've been joking with Fiona McIntyre about helicopters and all this stuff, but could that actually happen, do you think?
• 31:17
  SPEAKER_02: I I think it definitely could go to the last day.
• 31:20
  SPEAKER_02: I think it could go easily go to the last day.
• 31:24
  SPEAKER_02: If you're asking me who I think wins it, I'm I wasn't, but go on.
• 31:28
  SPEAKER_02: I I'd stick to go with Glasgow City.
• 31:29
  SPEAKER_02: I've thought Glasgow City, and I know they've had uh a few setbacks the last few weeks.
• 31:37
  SPEAKER_02: My money would still be in Glasgow City prevailing.
• 31:39
  SPEAKER_02: I think they're probably the best team in the league.
• 31:42
  SPEAKER_02: Um I think they're I I do wonder how much they miss Nicole Kozlova, you know, as she now comes back from an ACL injury.
• 31:52
  SPEAKER_02: I thought she'd be she'd had an exceptional season, I thought she'd been very, very good, and I think her absence has probably been felt quite keenly in recent games.
• 32:00
  SPEAKER_02: I still think they're probably the favourites for me to go and win it.
• 32:05
  SPEAKER_02: I and I think if there's a draw at Broadwood on Friday night, then it plays into Glasgow City's hands.
• 32:13
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it would be interesting.
• 32:14
  SPEAKER_01: I think the Rangers will win it.
• 32:16
  SPEAKER_01: Uh I think Leanne will do it in our first our first season.
• 32:19
  SPEAKER_02: Um Leanne, not Leanne Christ.
• 32:22
  SPEAKER_02: Leanne Christ My friend Leanne.
• 32:25
  SPEAKER_01: We hang about the same coffee shop.
• 32:27
  SPEAKER_01: So no, I just uh I've just got a weird feeling about it, but I whatever way it goes, it's gonna be it's gonna be really interesting.
• 32:34
  SPEAKER_01: That's been a good uh chat just to catch up on all the things that have been happening since we've last uh been on.
• 32:40
  SPEAKER_01: Next week we're gonna be bringing some coverage from the PFA nominees day, the young player of the year and the player of the year.
• 32:47
  SPEAKER_01: So that'll be good.
• 32:49
  SPEAKER_01: We'll be able to speak to those four nominees in each category and bring some bring you some uh coverage of that, which will be great.
• 32:55
  SPEAKER_01: But thank you uh to everyone again for listening and thanks for interacting across all our social media channels, follows on TikTok, on X and Instagram.
• 33:05
  SPEAKER_01: And thank you to Alison as well for joining me.