Sunday saw the side welcome Glasgow Women to Riverside for the first time this season. There was a precautionary pitch inspection in the morning, which passed no problem at all. Unfortunately, the lines didn’t pass the referee’s pre-match walk, leading to a slight delay in kick off as they were redone.
It was the away side who had the best of the play in the early part of the match. There were a few times where a last-ditch clearance was required to stop a Glasgow attack. Kayleigh Barghati, Glasgow’s leading goalscorer with three goals to her name, nearly opened the scoring. A fast-paced ball came into the box and came off the striker, a yard from goal, before she knew anything about it, and thankfully from a Saints point of view, went the other side of the post to safe.
At the other end, Saints had a great opportunity to open the scoring when Steffi Simson was played through, but her right-footed shot went narrowly wide of Khym Ramsay’s goal.
There was a real blow for Saints when Niamh Irvine was forced off with an injury to her foot, to be replaced by Megan Burns. There was a further blow a short time later when Glasgow took the lead after thirty-five minutes. After a slip, the ball broke kindly to Olivia King and she struck the ball first time and it flew into the top right corner.
Just before half time Saints very nearly got level. Morgan Steedman flashed a ball across the box and Jodie Malcolm seemed mere inches from connecting with the cross, where any touch would surely have directed it into the goal.
Into the second half and again the away side were enjoying the bulk of possession. For all their possession, there weren’t many clear-cut chances, and the match became a bit of a battle with the Saints midfield and defence doing well to break up the Glasgow advances. The game became more physical and Saints physio Kerri Stewart was certainly having a busy afternoon – at one point escorting a player off only to be called back on just moments after play had resumed.
Morgan Steedman firing into the side netting, and Rebecca Robertson heading wide from a corner and a blocked Nicole Carter shot were the only two real Saints chances of note. A quick Glasgow counter from a Saints corner set Barghati charging into the Saints half, but a weak shot was saved by Mitchell. The match played out with neither keeper forced into any goal denying saves, and the points returned to Glasgow.