Last season when Rangers lost out on the SWPL with the last kick of the ball, there was a feeling within Jo Potter’s camp – vocalised at that time – that they had been the best team in the league.
As Hibs prepare for a week which will determine whether or not they get their hands on the Championship trophy, the cut of Grant Scott’s jib was a little different.
The PFA Scotland Manager of the Month suggested that there might be better teams in the SWPL than Hibs. That there are teams with better players than Hibs, standout talents. But what he identified within his current side was the ‘uncoachables’, the X factor that has taken Hibs within a whisker of their first title for 18 years.
By rights, they should not be anywhere near the summit of the top flight.
Not in terms of budget and resources. The worst they will end up with is a third place finish and even then they’d be punching significantly above their weight – and above a Celtic side who competed in the Champions League this season.
When they were dismissed by Rangers at Fir Park back in March in the Sky Sports Cup final the consensus was that their title fight would dissipate in the aftermath of a sobering 5-0 defeat.
The chat was that the chasm that day between the teams would sift into the psyche of the team, undermining the belief that they could match the top three for a title fight.
Not only did they regroup and go again but their league campaign was recently bolstered with a comfortable win over Potter’s side.
This afternoon is arguably the biggest game of their season. If there is something of a throwback in a Hibs team going up against Glasgow City to battle it out for the Championship, there is nothing familiar about it to too many within the Easter Road camp.
Scott had a successful first period at Hibs but a title eluded him.
By contrast, Glasgow City are the unambiguous dominant force within the women’s game, seasoned at handling the pressure of the run-in.
Indeed, there has been something reminiscent about this season when compared to their dramatic last gasp title win at Ibrox on the final day of the campaign two years ago. That day they pinched it from under the noses of Rangers and Celtic after spending much of the season’s gripping finale dipping under the radar as the other two Glasgow sides took prominence.
This afternoon’s meeting has a winner-takes-all feel about it. A win for Hibs would enable them to open up a six point gap at the top with two games to go; Glasgow City’s vastly superior goal difference would not mean that the title was theirs but they would have a firm hand on it with the champagne on ice.
A City win, though, would point to another dramatic final day. City would go top if they beat Hibs this afternoon with the team level on points - and with Hibs facing the tougher title run-in.
Celtic host Rangers this afternoon and it will be intriguing to see how this one plays out. Events at Meadowbank knock it off top billing but Rangers are still hanging on in there.
A City win and a Rangers win would mean just two points between the top three – and Ibrox is the venue for the final game of the season when Potter’s side host Hibs. Elena Sadiku’s side, 11 points shy of Hibs, are well out of it. One suspects, however, that the message will be that although they cannot win the title now that they can have a say in how the title race plays out.
That Celtic should find themselves in such an ignominious position after the highs of last season is a conversation for another day. Lack of investment, ambition and direction from within is certainly a part of the story but there is no doubt, too, that this is a squad who have massively underachieved this term.
What that means for Sadiku remains to be seen but for this weekend, all eyes are fixated East.
AND ANOTHER THING
New Scotland manager Melissa Andreatta came across as a fairly skilled politician when she was introduced to the media for the first time this week.
Careful not to make any grand proclamations about taking Scotland back to major tournaments, she was keen to emphasise rather the work that it will take to get there.
She had to be fairly fleet-footed, too, to answer a question on the recent trans ban that has come from the SFA. Such an issue is a decision for those above but she coped with it comfortably.
It will be interesting to see now whether she can get a tune out of a Scotland squad that has underachieved in recent years.
AND FINALLY
Celtic’s capitulation in the SWPL has to mean that it is not quite a fairytale season for Emma Lawton.
But as the 23-year-old picked up the PFA Scotland Player of the Year on Sunday night, as voted for by her fellow professionals, it is difficult not to frame her individual campaign in as utterly fanciful.
This is a player who toiled for game time at Motherwell only a few seasons ago. A move to Partick Thistle and a subsequent move to Celtic and she has not looked back.
Lawton has made the transition into full-time football seamlessly and has been the only real positive story that has emerged from Celtic this season.
If she can continue the same trajectory as she gets her teeth into international football – there have been caps and a goal at Hampden thrown into the mix too this season – she will be capable of another level again.
