Hibs’ Ladies are looking forward to kicking off the 2014 season with a League Cup tie against Hutchison Vale at Albyn Park, Broxburn on Sunday (kick off 2pm, admission: £5 Adults/£2 Concessions).
Manager Willie Kirk told Hibernian TV: “The Hibernian Ladies are looking forward to the upcoming season. We play our first game against Hutchinson Vale on Sunday 2 March. It’s quite a good first game of the season as far as it’s a home game and it’s in the League Cup so it’s another game that will help us prepare for the League. Although we will be aiming to win everything we enter and every game we play, the League is more important and this fixture will allow us to get ready for that.
“Last season, when we came second to Glasgow City in the League and the Cup, we had a relatively young squad. There is more experience and confidence this season solely because all those players are a year older now and have experience of the Premier League. We’ve kept all our experienced players and the players we brought in have added a lot of experience as well. It’s still a very young team, but a team with more experienced players than we had 12 months ago.
“I’m really happy with our three new signings this season, Lisa Robertson, Elliss Jenkins and Caroline Heron. They’re settling in really well. All three of them have given us more than we expected and I suppose that’s the case with new players. You see things you like about them and when they come in you find out a lot more about them and their capabilities.
“Our main aim for this season is to accumulate more points than last year, and that should help to close the gap between us and Glasgow City. We’ve played four friendlies over the past few weeks. Those games have allowed us to put our pre-season work into action, to look at different things on the pitch and integrate new players. It gave us a chance to look at our system of play and also look at different players and positions.
“We’re looking forward to starting the season again, but the first game can be difficult because everything’s built up towards that so there can be a lot of nerves. It will be difficult from that aspect, but we’ll just concentrate on ourselves and everything we’ve been working on leading up to it, rather than focusing on the opposition.
“We appreciate everyone who comes to our games, and there is room for a lot more people to show their support. Women’s football is the fastest growing sport in Europe, and Hibernian Ladies have been at the top of the game year on year. We have prepared and are ready for this season to be even better than before.”
2014 FIRST TEAM FIXTURES (Home games played at Albyn Park, Broxburn)
2 March Hutchison Vale (h) League Cup
16 March Forfar Farmington (a)
23 March Inverness City (h)
30 March Aberdeen (a)
20 April Hutchison Vale (h)
27 April Rangers (a)
4 May Celtic (h)
18 May Buchan (a)
25 May Spartans (a)
1 June Queens Park (h)
8 June Hamilton (a)
29 June Glasgow City (h)
John graduated from Telford College in 2010 with an HNC in Practical Journalism and since then he worked for the North Edinburgh News, The Southern Reporter, the Irish News Review and The Edinburgh Reporter. In addition he has been published in the Edinburgh Evening News and the Hibernian FC Programme.
