CELTIC women’s captain Kelly Clark admits that she could not have hoped for a better opening fixture of the 2018 Scottish Building Society SWPL 1 season. Celtic play Rangers tomorrow at K-Park Training Academy and for Clark, the thought of starting off the season with a win against her team’s greatest rivals gave her that extra push during pre-season training.
Celtic finished in third spot in the SWPL last year, three places above Rangers but with Rangers having recorded a brace of league victories over their Glasgow rivals last season, Clark could not be more driven to turn things around this year, beginning with tomorrow’s match.
“There’s no team in the league that I like beating as much as I like beating Rangers,” she said.”There’s something about that game that’s different from every other one. We might not have 60,000 fans cheering us on like the men do but it still means so much to the club. A Celtic – Rangers game is the match both clubs want to play in every weekend."
That a smaller crowd will be in attendance tomorrow in comparison compared to the men’s matches does not, though, dull the emotions around the game and as captain, it is Clark’s responsibility to make sure that none of her team get over-excited, which is not, she admits, an uncommon trait in either team in Celtic – Rangers matches. “We have to stay focused though and not lose the head – if you go a man down, we just make it so difficult for ourselves so we have to get the balance right," she said. "I’ve played in about ten Celtic – Rangers games and in at least three or four of them there could have been a red card. Tensions do boil over and when things aren’t going well, it’s easy to lose control.
"Especially with the younger players, I speak to them to make sure that they’re ready for a battle but that they also know that their job is to go out there and play football because performance is the most important thing.”
While Clark’s immediate focus is defeating Rangers tomorrow, her long-term target is to challenge Glasgow City and Hibs, who have been the dominant teams in recent years. This is, she believes, eminently possible. “We were a bit disappointed with how we finished last season so we’re looking to start afresh this year.
"I feel like we can challenge Hibs and Glasgow City at the top of the league. Last season, our biggest downfall was our results against teams below us and that’s something that neither Glasgow City nor Hibs do so if we can stop that happening, if we can beat all of the teams below us then when we do play those two, there’s very little in in and so that puts more pressure on them.”
Meanwhile, defending champions Glasgow City begin their campaign at home against Stirling University while Hibs, who won both cup competitions last year, are at home to Spartans.
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