St Mirren Women head coach Kate Cooper says her Buddies proved their point after smashing rivals Greenock Morton on the opening day of the season.
The Saints had suffered a painful 10-3 pre-season loss to their noisy neighbours just the previous weekend, prompting some celebrations the Paisley side wouldn’t forget.
They travelled to Cappielow for their SWF Championship curtain-raiser and delivered the perfect reply, thrashing the hosts 4-1 before replicating the poses their rivals shoved in their faces seven days before.
While Cooper wants her side to continue to focus on themselves as the season progresses, she understood the reaction of her players and was delighted with the determination and grit they showed to win the first derby of the campaign.
Cooper told Express Sport: “It was a phenomenal response from my players.
“The last 18 months have been so tough, we’ve lost a lot of players and have had to bring a lot of youngsters through.
“The loss to Morton the week before was a bit of a freak result, it shouldn’t have been as heavy as it was and it didn’t reflect who we are.
“Morton came out and said they annihilated us, which of course just gave our players a huge point to prove.
“We worked really hard, defended really well and totally deserved all three points. To do it at Cappielow as well was pretty special.
“Morton may feel like they had more clear cut chances, but at the end of the day this game is about scoring goals.
“We worked our socks off and it was a real team effort.
"It was the perfect start to the season and it gives us a brilliant platform to build from.”
The only downside to St Mirren’s opening day clash was a serious injury sustained by left-sided midfielder Elly McLean 20 minutes into the second half.
After an innocuous tackle she suffered a dislocated ankle and a broken leg which required surgery this week.
Cooper admits it took the shine off the derby win, but knows her players will rally around McLean as she recovers.
Cooper said: “The only negative from Sunday was the injury to Elly.
“It was about 20 minutes into the second half and it was just one of those freak injuries, it wasn’t a nasty tackle or anything like that.
“It definitely took a bit of the shine off the result, especially as she’d waited so long to get back to playing competitively again.
“Hopefully she won’t be out of action for too long though and I’m sure her teammates will give her all the support they can as she recovers.”
Next up for the Buddies is a first home clash of the season against United Glasgow at Mossedge Village this Sunday, with kick-off at 3.30pm.
Cooper hopes plenty of supporters will come down to cheer them on, especially some of the younger players who are only just starting out in senior football.
Cooper added: “We’re really looking forward to our first home game of the season. It’s been a hell of a long time coming.
“There’s going to be a lot of tough games, especially when you look at the results from the opening day. There were some real unexpected results in the first round of fixtures.
“We’ve brought a lot of young players up from the under-17’s and it’s a big step for them.
“We know we need to be patient with them as their form will peak and dip like all youngsters, but it bodes really well for the future of the club to be bringing them in so early.”
