girls grab goals galore
Kayleigh Cameron
CELTIC Ladies eased through to the semi finals of the Unite Scottish Cup on Sunday with a 12-0 demolition of Hamilton Accies at Garscube Complex.
With Hamilton being one of only three sides to have beaten the Hoops this season, few anticipated such an emphatic victory, but some splendid finishing throughout the team has paved the way for a semi final clash against Aberdeen.
The game was over as a contest within the first 10 minutes. Celtic bombarded the Accies goal from the whistle and three minutes in captain Becky Stokes opened the scoring with a fine finish from 15 yards. Suzanne Malone soon followed up with a second, calmly slotting home.
With Celtic camped in the visitors half, it surprisingly took another 15 minutes before the Hoops would find the net again, although both Cunningham and Gemmell sent efforts whistling past the post and, Jenny Beattie was adjudged to have fouled in the box when heading home from a Clare Gemmell corner.
Accies had been warned, but minutes later Gemmell and Beattie re-enacted their set play and this time Beattie’s header put her side three up.
Gemmell turned from provider to scorer for the next goal, volleying home at the front post from Cunningham’s driven cross, and in turn Cunningham put her name on the scoresheet with a low drive from inside the box, putting the Hoops five ahead at the break.
Claire Johnstone in goal had a quiet afternoon against her former club and, although Celtic started the second half slowly it was a matter of time before they started finding the net again.
Gemmell rounded off a magnificent performance with her second on 58 minutes and her midfield partner Jo Love got in on the action soon after, finishing off a polished passing move with a vicious strike.
Love was unlucky not to grab her second minutes later when she thundered a right foot strike off the under side of the cross bar, which American Nicole Findlay followed up to tap home.
Love then produced the finish of the game with a superbly executed lob from 18-yards.
Right back Jacqui Seagrave celebrated wildly after scoring her first goal for the Hoops and Nicole Findlay finished the rout off with another fabulous strike from the angle of the box.
Speaking after the game manager John Holt joked that he was “speechless” after witnessing his side take another step towards appearing in their first final.
“Having been beat 2-1 by Hamilton previously we were wary of this game,” he said.
“We knew we were a far better side than we showed on the first day of the season but we couldn’t take this game lightly.
“Getting to the final of this cup is so important to us, and I couldn’t have dreamt about a better performance to get us into the semi.”
“I’m delighted that our goals came from all over the pitch and delighted with how good our finishing was.”
Celtic will play Aberdeen in the semi-final on Thursday, April 17 at a neutral venue TBC.
On Sunday they return to Premier League duty away to Forfar, at Strathmore Park, 2pm.
Unite Scottish Cup,
Sunday, April 6th, 2008,
Garscube Complex
CELTIC...12
(Stokes 3, Malone 10, Beattie 25, 89, Gemmell 35, 58, Cunningham 44, Love 64, 79, Findlay 68, 85, Seagrave 69)
HAMILTON ACADEMICAL...0