St. Mirren vs Stenhousemuir Women FC

Match Report

A few tough games and results mean the Warriors head into this match in 6th place in the table, while St Mirren sit in 4th. St Mirren managed a 10-0 win in their last game out while the Warriors lost 3-1 for the second time to Westdyke.

Jack Cameron named 2 changes from the side that played Westdyke last time out as Clare Wilson and one of the Trialists made the squad. Harkness started in goals with a back 3 of Clare Wilson, Paterson and Vickerman. Sullivan and Connolly played slightly higher than their usual full back roles, instead joining the midfield alongside the Trialist, Erin Wilson and Templeton. Montgomery and Eirinn Maguire started up front. Phee, Pearson, Richard-Campbell and Leah Jones made the bench.

The St Mirren squad was made up of Joanne Casey, Helen McLeod, Karen McCabe, Sorcha Turner, Gemma Dickson, Kelly Ross, Ceara Macintyre, Naomi Clark, Lesley Palmer, Ema Beka and Jennifer Caldwell. Missaghian-Shirazi, Fury, McLean, Nichol, Philip and Morrison formed the bench.

St Mirren got the game underway and started the stronger of the two sides. It was a scrappy start for the Warriors.

GOAL ST MIRREN: A through ball breaks the back 3 and plays in Ceara Macintyre who strikes it into the bottom left corner to give the home team the lead. ST MIRREN 1-0 STENHOUSEMUIR [Ceara Macintyre 5′]

GOAL STENHOUSEMUIR: The Trialist picks the ball up in the middle of the park for the Warriors and chips it in to Templeton who brings it down with her chest, turns and smashes it into the bottom left past the keeper. Great touch and goal. ST MIRREN 1-1 STENHOUSEMUIR [Templeton 17′]

A pass down the wing find Macintyre free on the right hand side of the pitch but she takes a poor touch and the ball rolls out for a throw in. She tries to recover it and ends up sliding into the Cameraman and destroys the Triopd. St Mirren 1 Tripod 0.

Vickerman gets caught in posession at the back and it allows St Mirren to apply some pressure. The ball is crossed in and a shot is laced in from the rebound, from outside the box, but Harkness manages to get the ball down well.

HALF TIME: ST MIRREN 1-1 STENHOUSEMUIR

A poor defensive head back to the keeper from St Mirren plays both Eirinn Maguire and Samantha Montgomery through on goal with the keeper out of her box but neither player can decide who should hit it and in the end the keeper gets a touch on it.

A free kick for the Warriors from outside the box is struck well by Templeton. It floats into the box and into the keepers hands. 5 Stenny players were lurking for the rebound but it wasn’t forthcoming.

St Mirren win a freekick in the attacking third of the pitch. Its lobbed in and finds a head in the crowd. The ball is nodded down and is heading towards the net, but Harkness makes a fantastic diving save to keep the scoreline level.

Templeton has done well in the middle of the park. Using her strength she turns the St Mirren defense and lays the ball into Connolly who gets a shot off. The keeper in the end saves it but the ball did bobble and looked a little dangerous.

YELLOW CARD: Clare Wilson picks up the first yellow card of the match for a bit of a heavy tackle.

YELLOW CARD: The Trialist picks up a yellow card for arguing with the referee after what appears to be a series of wrong decisions, including throw ins and corners.

SUBSTITUTION: The Trialist goes down after a big hit inside the box during a corner and has to be removed as Richard-Campbell comes on to replace her.

GOAL STENHOUSEMUIR: A freekick from about 35 yards out is hit by Templeton to perfection. It nestles in the top left corner, skiffing the post on the way in. No one was saving that. What a freekick! ST MIRREN 1-2 STENHOUSEMUIR [Templeton 87′]

Connolly intercepts the ball from the St Mirren defence and powers in to the edge of the box, shrugging off defenders as she goes. She unleashes a shot but in the end it didn’t have enough power to cause any real threat. It was fanatastic work to create the opportunity though!

FULL TIME: ST MIRREN 1-2 STENHOUSEMUIR

POST MATCH REACTION

We spoke to Head Coach Jack Cameron after the match.

Can you sum up how you are feeling after that match?

“I’m delighted with the result. We changed our tactic today to try and match their shape and I thought for large parts of the first half we got success but without really hurting them in the final third to try and kill the game, but im delighted that we managed to get the winner.”

Two goals for Templeton today. How pleased are you for her?

“Im delighted for Dibs. Shes done really well since she came in. Slightly different position for her today as we start adjusting to her as a group but shes been brilliant for us off the pitch as well as on it. You can see her qualities though with two massive goals for us getting us a massive win.”

Clare Wilson back in the squad today after an injury. Is that her back now?

“Clare has been out for a couple of weeks and we’ve tried not to rush her back too much. To be honest I would have preferred to have left it another week, but she trained well over the last week and a half with no problems and she was desperate to get back in and play. Obviously she is an important player for us. She is solid, wether its in midfield or in defense, shes a constant 8/10. So it was massive to get her back for us.”

A week off now for the team with no game next weekend. What are your plans for the break?

“We’re going to be training next week as normal but we are not going to schedule a friendly for the weekend and instead have a team day out. A lot of us are still quite new to the group, myself and the coaches included, so we want to use it as a sort of team bonding day.”

The team now have a break before their next fixture at home to Airdrie on the 6th of November.