Aberdeen Women co-manager Gavin Beith insists their season won’t be defined by results against SWPL 1’s professional sides, despite his disappointment at last night’s defeat to Glasgow City.
The Dons travelled to Petershill Park on the back of a five-game winning run, and started well as Francesca Ogilvie scored to put them ahead in the fourth minute.
However, Tyler Dodds equalised not long after and started what ended up as a 10-1 rout at Aberdeen’s expense.
And while he is disappointed at the result, Beith believes the Dons’ season cannot be solely judged on games against the likes of Glasgow City.
He said: “We go into every single game believing we can win, but we’re well aware that’s going to be challenging against the professional clubs.
“Our season isn’t going to be defined on what happens in the games against the likes of Glasgow City, Celtic or Rangers.
“They’re way ahead with everyone else in the league with the finances and with them training full-time.
“We’ve done the work we had to do and beat the teams round about us which was always going to be the objective.
“That’s why we have been confident recently, but that might go down now and the players will be low today like everyone else has been.
“But we will recover and be positive for the next game. There’s no better way to move on.”
A bad night at the office
Despite his hopes that the result won’t linger, it was the biggest defeat of Aberdeen’s season so far, and Beith admits that it wasn’t good enough.
He added: “It’s not what we expected, and I don’t think too many people across the country expected it to be honest.
“We had such a positive start, but then one thing led to another and it was just a really bad night at the office.
“We needed our key players to turn up and perform, that didn’t happen.
“We needed to play to the best of our ability, that didn’t happen.
“And we needed Glasgow City to have an off night, and that didn’t happen.
“So, you put everything together and it just starts to turn into, the best way to describe it, was a disaster.”
SPFL era begins with interim appointment
Fiona McIntyre has been appointed interim managing director of the new SPFL women’s leagues.
McIntyre, the Scottish FA head of girls’ and women’s football, will join the SPFL on a four-month secondment from the SFA with immediate effect.
Her appointment follows last month’s announcement that the SPFL will assume responsibility of elite women’s football in Scotland from the summer.
As interim managing director, McIntyre will drive the process of creating new league and league cup competitions for the top two divisions of the Scottish Women’s Premier League.
She said: “I am delighted to be given the responsibility in the short-term to help drive positive change at such an exciting juncture for the elite women’s game.
“I look forward to working with the SWPL clubs to create ambitious new competitions that will inspire continued progress at all levels of women’s football in Scotland.”
