Today was never going to be about upsets, but the magic of the Scottish Cup is still alive and kicking.
Shocks may have been in short supply but for some of Scottish women's football's lesser lights there remained cause for celebration.
Walking across the main concourse of Edinburgh’s Waverley Station in the distance I spot Hamilton Academical midfielder Kirstie Macintosh heading towards the platforms I have just disembarked from.
Later that afternoon a first competitive win of the season for Robert Watson’s side would finally come. A 3-2 extra-time victory away to SWPL2 promotion chasers Kilmarnock courtesy of a 120th minute Josi Giard goal amongst the final throes of Women’s Scottish Cup Third Round day.
The Glasgow I left on Sunday morning was white, the tops of buildings clouded by a pea-souper so thick that if you were to stick a spoon in and attempt to stir it would remain firmly upright.
The environmental stour at Petershill Park was so dense that it would cause a delay to kick-off in a game where Partick Thistle would eventually come from behind to beat league rivals Motherwell 4-2. Glasgow City would score ten as they defeated Championship leaders Rossvale in the match that followed immediately after.
As the low, rattling clickity-clack of wheels on track moved from east to west the white fields that surrounded Scotland’s biggest city were soon replaced by Lothian and finally Edinburghian greens but a to-the-bone chill prevailed as my afternoon continued.
The first weekend of a new year of Scottish women’s football action and the Third Round of a competition where sides from the SWPL enter, mingling with those very much still playing for the love of the game.
Over the course of the preceding week I had spent time speaking to some of those players, managers, everywomen who were setting out to establish Sunday as a landmark for future reference not just for them, but for the club’s they have made their footballing homes.
Inverness Caledonian Thistle’s Karen Mason and Kirsty Deans’ may have looked on at their final 12-0 reverse with a little wince, football at it’s heart remains a competitive game, but for the next generation and club record 1,031 in attendance at the Caledonian Stadium a rare chance to see international calibre footballers up close and personal. Rangers coming to the Highlands was not to be missed even if it meant chasing the occasional shadow.
For Clare Docherty, Ayr United’s Head of Women’s and Girls Academy the shock was not destined to come either. Cup holders Celtic winning 7-0 at Townhead Park, but to walk hand in hand onto a pitch surrounded by hundreds; with the daughters whose birth that she once thought would have led to her retiring permanently, a memory now exists that she can hold onto forever.
And for Sammy Hyett, Edinburgh Caledonia’s founder and chair, one last hurrah against one of the countries very best, and city rivals Hearts, in her final season as a player. Even in the aftermath of a 9-0 defeat I hope she is afforded the time to reflect how women’s football in Scotland has come a long way since she scraped knees across gravel car parks in Aberdonian hand-me-downs.
There were of course many others and in many respects, the Third Round of the Women’s Scottish Cup was always going to be less about the pursuit of an upset, and more about the stories rarely told being given a platform to be shared.
That’s not to say that magic still shouldn’t be allowed to try and cast an intoxicating spell. Fifth tier Glenrothes Strollers going 1-0 up at home to SWPL2 Gartcairn, one of a number to offer a brief sleight of hand across the 14 ties to be played. The Fife side would eventually fall to a 3-1 defeat.
While the expectations of record crowds in Inverness and Cumnock offered a more camera friendly appeal, I headed to Meadowbank for a pair of ties with potential glimmers of that old magic.
In the day’s opener, SWPL2 Boroughmuir Thistle welcomed top-flight Aberdeen, who for forty-five minutes were made to look like they hadn't arrived in town from the division above.
Boroughmuir are, if social media self-descriptors are to believed, the largest girls and women’s club in Scotland, as synonymous with the colour purple as their visitors are with red. Push through the brutalist turnstiles of steel and in it’s place you will find warmth and the offer of a scarf striped with the same purple and white pattern that would be snuggled around the faces of ball girls given one of the most important jobs of the day.
Magic can come in victory but it can also come by being as close to the action as you’re allowed. For a while it looked like the Boroughmuir ball girls might get both.
Thistle take the lead, Dundee United loanee Emily Arthur riding tackles with a flare similar to a sorcerer casting spells with their wand, before slotting the ball past Jenni Currie, one of a trio of Aberdeen’s winter signings taking to the pitch today.
It’s not undeserved and at half time the first syllables of a cup abracadabra gently begin to whisper but Aberdeen would quickly find the antidote. Bayley Hutchison, Hannah Innes and Hannah Stewart securing a 3-1 victory thanks to a period of second half domination.
A couple of hours later and the next wave of enchantment was poised and ready to be wash over SWPL2 St. Johnstone as they entered the fray against Hibernian. The eight time winners however, supported by a rambunctiousness noise of chanting, quickly and decisively ensured that St. Johnstone would barely get to feel the spray, opening the scoring with just four minutes played.
Michaela McAlonie, who at times must have felt her limbs and joints have been cursed over the last two seasons helping herself to four goals including a free kick hit with such ferocity that it conjured a brand of magic all of its own.
10-0 would be the final score on a day where not a single shock would come.
But today was never going to be about the upsets for sides who will return to the undercard when the SWPL returns to action next Sunday.
Reality will dictate that familiar challenges around availability of players, of pitches, of referees, of everything will soon re-emerge but, for one day at least, the magic did not come in defeat, but instead by showing that, with support, what could be done.
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