Second Lanarkshire Derby win for Motherwell Ladies

Motherwell defeated their local rivals Hamilton Accies 2-1 in the second ever women’s Lanarkshire derby. Goals from Paige McAllister and Carla Boyce sealed Motherwell’s victory however, Josi Giard was able to pull one back for Accies towards the end of the match as over 250 fans watched on.

The women of steel were without their captain Gill Inglis as she was sent home from her job as a teacher on Friday with a viral infection, but Motherwell manager Paul Brownlie hopes she should be back in the squad for Wednesday’s game against Hibs.

Some confusion occurred after Motherwell scored their first goal as Leanne Crichton’s corner hit off the crossbar and landed at the feet of Paige McAllister who was surrounded by Hamilton bodies. McAllister instinctively slid it into the back of the net. Originally it was believed that Crichton had scored due to how quickly it happened, because the view was restricted by the number of players standing in front of the goal and the women of steel ran to celebrate with their assistant manager and teammate before realising that it was in fact McAllister’s efforts that won the goal.

Hamilton thought they equalised due to Tiree Burchill’s goal, but Motherwell goalkeeper Khym Ramsey looked to have been robbed of possession inside her own box, so a foul was given, and the goal was disallowed.

Lori Gardner ran circles round the Hamilton defenders into the box area and a penalty was awarded after she was brought down by Hannah Coakley just before half time. Chelsie Watson stood up to take the penalty, but her effort hit off the post.

Not long into the second half Motherwell doubled their lead as Carla Boyce fired it home for the women of steel. Tiree Burchill and Jeni Currie were brought down in the Hamilton box and had to receive a quick medical check to make sure they weren’t injured and could play on; the linesmen however deemed no contact occurred between the two players and any of the opposition meaning the penalty wasn’t awarded.

Josi Giard in the final minutes of the game was able to beautifully infiltrate Motherwell’s defence and score for Hamilton. As the final whistle was blown Motherwell were the victors.

Speaking after the match Paige McAllister said:” I feel good after the game it wasn’t our best performance, but we dug in deep and got the result that we needed.

“It was good to get my first goal for the club, obviously it looked as if Crichton had scored it, but I got a wee touch in at the end. I did tell the girls when we were running across it was me that scored it, but we were all celebrating with Crichton.

“To prepare for our next game against Hibs we’ll go to training, we’ll look back and look at how they play, and we’ll get ourselves prepared.”

Motherwell boss Paul Brownlie said: ”First of all we are delighted with the three points that was our main objective today I think if I’m being brutally honest there has been games this season where we have played better and lost so we’ll take it.”

When speaking of the controversial decisions from the match Brownlie said: “Listen these things will balance themselves out over the course of a season. We had a stonewall penalty in the Scottish Cup that we never got there’s no point in us coming out and moaning about it you know it’s happened referees will make mistakes but for Gary and Bobby it’s a sore one. I didn’t see it clearly, so I don’t want to comment too much.

” Moving up the table is certainly a target, there is a long way to go and a lot of tough games ahead and I’ve told them that there we know we can play better but as I said we’ll take the three points.

“I think I would need to see our goal back again I think it’s Paige McAllister that is claiming it.”

Hamilton manager Robert Doctor said:” I think everyone’s talking about that goal it was a big moment in the match it was 1-0 at the time it would’ve brought us level and could’ve given us a much better opportunity to get into the game. We’ve been talking about bad luck on another day you get that goal I’m really surprised that the call was made by the assistant on the far side it’s quite far away from it but it’s one of these things.

“A couple of decisions went against us but there’s plenty of things that went well in the game but ultimately the two corners that lead to the goals we have to defend better

“I’d need to see the video of the penalty claim again, from our angle it certainly looked like the goalkeeper had caught Tiree, I think anywhere else on the pitch that’s given as a foul. The fact that both players were down getting treatment suggests there was contact between the two so it’s interesting we’ll need to look at that one back. At that point it was 2-0 and that would have given us a little bit longer period of time to get that second goal.”