Celtic 7-0 Spartans: Celtic hit magnificent seven as Spartans are thrashed

By Ethan Barlow

After a stalemate at half-time, The Celts managed seven second half goals to take all three points in their final home match of the year. Goals from Gallacher, Smith, Goldie, Barclais, Agnew and a Caitlin Hayes double kept Celtic one point behind league leaders Rangers, who won 5-0 at Motherwell. Here are some of the key takeaways from Sunday afternoon’s encounter:

Celtic showed patience to get the job done, after a poor first half

The Spartans are the first Scottish side, barring Rangers and Glasgow City,

to hold Celtic to a first-half shutout this season, which is an impressive feat for the Edinburgh side. Celtic eventually got the job done, and impressively in the end which pleased Fran Alonso, he said: “I thought we had a poor first half, the performance wasn’t good, we weren’t intense. Outstanding second half, I’m very happy overall.”

Caitlin Hayes shows why she won last season's PFA Woman’s Player of the Year

Celtic’s centre-back with an incredible attacking output, strikes again. The Republic of Ireland international gained a reputation for her scoring threat from defence last season as she picked up the PFA Woman’s Player of the Year Award. She got Celtic’s most crucial goal of the afternoon, as she broke the deadlock at a difficult time for The Ghirls, to get the scoring started at the start of the second period. Hayes also helped herself to a second, taking her league tally to seven for the season.

Spartans can take positives from the first game of a new era

Despite the Spartans being beaten comprehensively in the end, there is positives to be taken from the match. As already mentioned, shutting Celtic out for 45 minutes and being in the game for that long is something no team outside of Glasgow’s other big two can say this season. This match marked the first time since 2010 that long-serving Spartans manager, Debbi McCulloch wasn’t in charge as she stepped down as head coach. With McCulloch becoming the Spartans Foundation’s CEO, a new chapter begins for the Edinburgh side as they try to move away from the bottom end of the SWPL, this result leaves them second bottom, five points clear of Hamilton.

SportEthan Barlow