Eva Thomson hopes her rapid impact from the bench against Hamilton Accies will boost her chances of being named in Aberdeen Women’s starting XI.
Thomson, 18, entered the fray in the 58th minute against Accies and scored with her first touch to net Aberdeen’s second goal, following Bayley Hutchison’s first-half effort, in the 2-1 win at Balmoral Stadium on Sunday.
The close-range strike was the midfielder’s first SWPL 1 goal this season.
It was a performance Thomson was happy with and, after enduring a difficult campaign due to a head-knock and lengthy concussion struggles, she hopes it captured the attention of interim manager Gavin Levey.
Thomson said: “Before I came on, Gav told me I had to go on and make a difference and try to get myself back starting in the team.
“My first touch of the game was the goal ,which gave me confidence for the rest of the game. I was more confident to get on the ball and take players on.
“A goal gives any player confidence. I wanted to go and show that I should be starting in this position – that was my aim.
“When I’m playing in the number 10 role, my aim is to get the ball at my feet and take players on and play through balls, which I think I did well to do when I came on.
“Hopefully this will be the start of getting my confidence back and getting back in the team.”
Thomson says all points are crucial for Aberdeen
The 2-1 win over Hamilton moved the 10th-placed Dons five points clear of their 11th-placed opponents, who occupy the relegation play-off spot, and Thomson echoed interim manager Levey by also describing it as a “huge” victory.
She said: “It’s a huge win. We’re battling at the bottom of the table and any points we get are crucial to fight relegation.
“Beating the teams who are below us is especially important, so we can keep the gap between them and us as big as we can.”
“We dominated the game, especially in the first half. I don’t think Hamilton had a chance until they scored, so we were disappointed to concede and then have to defend for our lives a bit.
“The first 70 minutes were really good. We’ve been working on different passing patterns in training and I think that showed.”
On Wednesday night, Aberdeen meet another side trying to secure their safety in Dundee United, who are currently level on 21 points with the Dons.
Thomson is expecting it to be a challenging contest, as she said: “Dundee United is always a close game. We know what they’re like – it’ll be very physical, but we can take the positives from Hamilton.
“The atmosphere is really good around the team, so if we can take that into Wednesday, we can hopefully put on a good performance and get the three points.”
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