SWPL Roundup – Spartans held at home while Hibs win on the road

It was one win, one draw and one loss for each of Edinburgh’s SWPL1 sides on Wednesday night.

Hibernian won 1-0 away to Hamilton, Spartans fought out a goalless draw against Partick, and Hearts lost 3-0 at home to Celtic.

It was a freezing night at Ainslie Park as Spartans were held at home by a resolute Partick side. Partick, who beat Spartans’ Edinburgh rivals Hibs this season, defended resolutely throughout the 90 minutes. Spartans couldn’t break the deadlock despite a late onslaught, the pick of the bunch occurred in the 90th minute, as promising young forward Rosie MacQuillan failed to get on the end of Sarah Clelland’s excellent cross. Spartans will feel they did enough to get the three points at the end, but showed much more urgency in the final 15 minutes than they had at any other point during what was mostly a drab affair.

There was no giant killing for Hearts, whose tough start to the season continues as they lost to Celtic, one of the SWPL’s three professional sides. Celtic opened the scoring at the Oriam in the 7th minute through player of the month nominee Charlie Wellings. Kathleen McGovern made it 2-0 four minutes later, with the third and final goal scored before half-time by Australian youth international Jacynta who converted from close range.

Elsewhere Hibs won 1-0 away against the Accies, going ahead in the 29th minute courtesy of Amy Gallacher. Gallacher couldn’t miss after Amy Muir’s cross split the entire Hamilton defence. Gallacher continues her fine form and is surely in contention for a Scotland cap after her performances this season. Hibs defended resolutely for the rest of the game, and the score was to remain 1-0.

Hearts are rooted to the bottom of the table with only one win out of eight games this season, Hibs are in fourth, five points off the top three, while Spartans are one of three sides on seven points, lying in eight place in a very congested SWPL table.