City draw with Celtic
Glasgow City and Celtic drew 1-1 today as a good crowd turned up to watch the two sides at the top of the table battle it out at St Mirren Academy in Ralston.
Billed as the game of the season so far, City will be disappointed not to have taken all three points, in a match they dominated for long spells.
City opened the scoring through Kat Lindner just before the half hour mark, but should have gone in at the break much further ahead as chance after chance went untaken by the Champions. Leanne Ross was the first City player to go agonisingly close, when her shot on five minutes was pushed by Gemma Fay in the Celtic goals on to the bar and away to safety.
Good work by Lisa Evans down the right saw her cross meet the run of Lindner, but the German striker shot just wide. Next up, Leanne Ross fired a free kick around the wall but over the bar. Jane Ross then had a shot which just skimmed the cross bar after being set-up by a Sue Lappin knock down from a Megan Sneddon set-piece.
Fay then had another good save, this time from a Lappin header from a City corner. Lappin had another chance moments later, but she headed over at the back post as City continued to pile on the pressure.
City did take the lead eventually when a pass from Lappin to Lindner saw Fay come out of her goal to claim, but she was unable to hold and Lindner pounced and stroked the ball into the back of the net to give her side a well deserved lead.
Seconds after the restart, City were on the attack again, but centre half Eilish McSorley headed wide from a well worked City corner.
From the goal kick, Celtic attacked and Rachel Corsie was adjudged to have fouled Suzanne Grant as the Scotland striker entered the City box. Grant took the penalty herself, but her spot kick came off the post.
Rachel Corsie almost doubled City’s lead on 35 minutes, but she headed wide at the back post as she got on the end of a cross from Megan Sneddon.
Fay then pulled off the save of the day. Lindner beat the full back and played a good ball into Sneddon inside the Celtic box. The City and Scotland midfielder then hit the perfect shot towards the corner of the Celtic net, but Fay pulled off an outstanding save to keep her side in the match.
Moments later, she was in action again, this time saving a shot from Corsie.
Half time 1-0.
In the second half, City continued to dominate proceedings and thought they had doubled their advantage when Sue Lappin stroked home inside the box. However, the assistant flagged for offside, in a decision, still unknown to the majority of observers at the match.
City’s inability to add another goal cost them dearly when with 14 minutes left, a mistake at the back allowed Suzanne Grant in and the Celtic and Scotland striker finished expertly to give her side a vital point.
Commenting on the match, City boss Peter Caulfield said, “Obviously we are extremely frustrated with the result as we felt we totally dominated throughout. For the majority of the game, we pushed them back towards their goal. One opportunity gave them a chance and they took it. We are very frustrated for having a goal chopped off which seemed a perfectly good goal and would have given us the result our overall performance deserved. Celtic must be very delighted to get something out of a game they were second best for most of the match.”
16.05.10
