Aberdeen Women were knocked out of the Scottish Cup in the quarter-finals, but Eilidh Shore believes that their disappointment has to be taken as a sign of the club’s progress.
The Dons reached the quarter-final stage after 4-2 wins against SWPL 2 opposition Glasgow Women and SWPL 1 side Spartans in the previous rounds.
But Emma Hunter and Gavin Beith’s side won’t be in the hat for the semi-final, having fallen to a 2-0 defeat to Celtic at Balmoral Stadium on Sunday.
Despite the result, there were spells over the 90 minutes where Aberdeen impressed and matched up with Celtic’s fully professional squad.
And Shore reckons that leaving the pitch disappointed about being put out of the cup by one of the best teams in the country is a sign of how much the club has progressed.
The midfielder said: “We gave them a strong game, but we knew it was going to be tough.
“It does show how far we’ve come – these are top teams that are training full time.
“For us to compete with Celtic for 90 minutes just shows the progress we’ve made and hopefully we can develop that further for the rest of this season.
“And then, even looking forward to next season, can we push ourselves even more.”
Focus moves back to SWPL 1
Aberdeen’s focus will now be set on their SWPL 1 campaign, where they sit fifth in the table with six games to go.
Their remaining fixtures include meetings with Hearts, Motherwell, Hibs and Partick Thistle – teams they have already beaten this season.
“They’re always good games against those teams and that’s who we’re closely competing with rather than the top few sides,” Shore explained.
“It’s games where both teams on the pitch will be wanting to win – there’s no doubt about that – and we’ll be looking to get all three points.”
#ParksSWPL | Here's the updated @parksmotorgroup SWPL 1 table ⬇ @RangersWFC move 5⃣ points clear at the 🔝#ParksSWPL1 pic.twitter.com/V9FJ1o7W1m
— Park’s Motor Group SWPL (@SWPL) April 3, 2022
However, there will also be clashes on the road against SWPL 1’s top-two sides, Glasgow City and Rangers.
Shore added: “It’ll be a tough run to the end of the season playing some of the top teams in the league, so we’ll work hard in training and prepare for that.
“We’ve got to end the season strong and try to get points on the board to finish where we want to be in the table.”
