Glasgow City

Having twice gone behind,  a Samantha Van Diemen header and Brenna Lovera double edged Glasgow City past Celtic 3-2 winners in the Scottish Cup 5th Round. It marked their first victory over Celtic in three attempts this season after a league and League Cup defeat.  After a cagey start to the game with both sides keenly aware of each others’ quality, Lucy Ashworth-Clifford took matters into her own hands, firing an audacious shot from just a few metres inside the City half and over a backtracking Lee Gibson to give Celtic the lead after nineteen minutes. City however responded seven minutes later after Emma Lawton was adjudged to have brought Emma Whelan down in the box with Brenna Lovera making no mistake from the spot. Pushing for a second, the home side thought they had taken the lead minutes later after Kimberley Smit blasted home a Hayley Lauder free-kick into the box but having made their way back to the centre circle to kick-off, referee Nathan Deane annulled to the goal after speaking to his assistant. Wasting no time to make the most of their good fortune, Celtic put themselves back in front through a poacher’s finish from the free scoring Saoirse Noonan, who slotted home Morgan Cross’ low ball. Coming out with an immediate reaction, Samantha Van Diemen’s header levelled the score just three minutes into the second half. Turning the screw to maximum effect, Whelan found Lovera who used some nifty footwork to create space to fire her second of the game and sixth in her last four games. Going into the break, City were from an even greater deficit to overcome by Lee Gibson, who denied Noonan and Maria McAneny from point blank range. Noonan was guilty of failing to test the keeper after Ashworth-Clifford’s low cross bobbled around the box before the striker fired it wide. Fortunate not to concede a fourth, Elena Sadie has McAneny to thank for making a brilliant goal line clearance from a Glasgow City corner. Substitute Mathilde Castens had an effort late on but her effort lack the accuracy to trouble Gibson, who watched the ball fly past her post. With seconds to go Ashworth-Clifford sent a good opportunity clear over the bar as City held on for the all important win.   What the managers said: Glasgow City boss Leanne Ross: “Like everybody else we were surprised when the goal got chalked off in the first half. “We made a slight tactical change at half-time, we’ve come back and had more control in terms of possession in the second half. “[On getting one back on Celtic] It’s not about getting on back on anybody. It’s not about us against Celtic, it’s about us in terms of what we want to go and achieve. We wanted to get ourselves into the next of the cup today and we’ve and done that with a good performance.” Celtic boss Elena Sadiku: “To be honest I can’t believe that we lost that game. “I think we were the far better team in the first half, we should kill that game and then we have a really poor start in the second half. “They don’t create anything else. I mean fair play they won the game but it’s not good enough from us.     Line-ups: Glasgow City: Gibson, Evans (Warrington 46), Van Diemen, Smit, Muir, Gambone, Lauder (Anderson 90), Whelan, Wrobel (Lockwood 63), Evans (Kozlova 46), Lovera (Maatta 90) Unused subs: Easton, Love, Forrest Booked: Walsh (13), Wrobel (49), Carstens (92) Goals: Lovera (26 pen), (54), Van Diemen (48) Celtic: Daugherty, Lawton, Clark, Barclays, Ross (Cavanagh 63), McGregor, McAneny, Ashworth-Clifford, Agnew (Lofereski 74), Cross (Carstens 74), Noonan (Harrison 63) Unused subs: Logan, Smith, Lourenco Urbano Costa, Munoz Booked: Agnew (63), Gibson (70) Goals: Ashworth-Clifford (19), Noonan (32) Referee: Regan Wallace