Aberdeen Women defender Millie Urquhart believes Glasgow City’s full-time professional status was the difference in the 5-0 Scottish Cup defeat.
The Dons were dumped out of the cup in the fifth-round at the hands of the nine-time winners on Sunday, with goals from Priscilla Chinchilla, Mairead Fulton (two), Miracle Porter and Sophia Martin.
The score had only been 1-0 at half-time, but City showcased their capabilities after the interval, with Leanne Ross’ substitutes making the difference – Fulton, Porter and Martin all making their goalscoring impacts from the bench.
Aberdeen, Urquhart reckons, coped well with the Petershill Park side’s threat in spells, but admits, as the game progressed, City’s full-time professional qualities – and fitness – told more and more.
She said: “In the first half, we played well and held them off – I thought we defended for our lives. At half-time, we thought we could get something out the game.
“But in the second half, especially near the end, they’re a full-time team and that showed – like the extra training they do compared to us. We tried our best, but it wasn’t enough.
📺️ | 𝐆𝐎𝐀𝐋𝐒! ⚽️
All the goals from our match against Aberdeen in the 5th round of the @ScottishCup. ⤵️ pic.twitter.com/keDXfEqRMC
— Glasgow City FC 🧡🖤 (@GlasgowCityFC) February 12, 2023
“We travelled with a smaller squad because Nadine (Hanssen), Donna (Paterson) and Bayley (Hutchison) were out because of injury or illness.
“We tried our best, and we did what we could, but it’s been a tiring couple of weeks – having to come down to Glasgow four times in two weeks, and that maybe started to show.
“Glasgow City have a brilliant squad with lots of players to bring on. It’s just a shame that we don’t have the depth in our squad at the moment.”
A break for Aberdeen – but not for Urquhart as Scotland duty calls
Aberdeen now have a break from games for a fortnight, when they return to action against Sunday’s opponents, but this time in SWPL 1 – where Glasgow City sit three points clear at the top of the table.
Urquhart added: “We just have to go back to the training pitch and work on our technical ability and keeping the ball, so maybe next time we get something out the game.
“We’ll definitely try and cause an upset in the league – it’ll only have have been two weeks since we played them and Glasgow City play with a set style, so we’ll know how to prepare.”
#SCOW19s | Pauline Hamill has named her Scotland Women's Under-19s squad for our upcoming appearance at the Pinatar Youth Cup in February.
➡️ Read more: https://t.co/UjrSKz30kK#YoungTeam
— Scotland National Team (@ScotlandNT) January 31, 2023
Urquhart won’t be getting too much rest, as she jets off to Spain this week with the Scotland under-19s squad for the Pinatar Youth Cup, alongside Dons team-mates Jess Broadrick, Eva Thomson, Mya Christie and Annalisa McCann.
Urquhart said: “I’m really looking forward to it.
“It’s always good to be involved during the international break, and go and have the chance to play with different girls.”
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