Francesca Ogilvie believes Aberdeen Women must learn from a challenging season in SWPL 1 where they finished ninth.
The Dons rounded off their top-flight campaign on Sunday with a 3-0 defeat to Motherwell – following second-half goals from Carla Boyce, Kaela McDonald-Nguah and Lori Gardner.
Despite the result, Aberdeen still secured ninth spot in SWPL 1 due to 10th-placed Dundee United dropping points against Hamilton Accies, amassing 30 points.
It has been a challenging campaign with most of the Reds’ time spent in and around the bottom-three, and Aberdeen only confirmed their place in the division with two games to spare.
Vice-captain Ogilvie believes it is a season her side must take learnings from.
She said: “We’ve not had a great run of results this season – compared to last season when we finished fifth. Now we’re finishing ninth, it’s a bit of a blow.
TABLES | Here's the final 2022/23 @parksmotorgroup SWPL table ⬇@GlasgowCityFC lift the title with a dramatic late winner over @RangersWFC 🏆@CelticFCWomen finish runners-up and qualify for the 2023/24 @UWCL. pic.twitter.com/QWxd1TAwtS
— Scottish Women's Premier League (@SWPL) May 21, 2023
“Then we end the season with a loss, but we’ve said after the game: ‘We’ve stayed up, we’ve solidified our place, let’s write this one off now and move on to next season’.
“Even though we might think it’s been a bit of write off, it’s a case of learning from it and making sure we don’t make the same mistakes going into next season.
“We’ve all said as a group that mentality is something we need to learn from this season.
“One our stats that really isn’t good is that we’ve not come back from a losing position – and that definitely goes down to mentality.”
Ogilvie hails captain Campbell after final game
Ogilvie paid tribute to outgoing captain Loren Campbell, who played her final game for Aberdeen against Motherwell after more than 20 years at the club.
The skipper announced her imminent retirement earlier this month.
Ogilvie said: “I was thinking in the car on the way to Motherwell that I used to have a superstition that I had to sit next to Carrie (Doig) and Loren in the changing room.
“Carrie retired last year and now Loren – I’m going to have to find a new superstition.
“Loren is an incredible leader, on and off the pitch. Whatever she says goes – you don’t argue with her and her experience.”
The off-season should bring big changes for the Dons as a new full-time manager is soon to be appointed.
Recruitment will be high up the priority list for the new manager, due to the exits of skipper Campbell and Millie Urquhart.
Ogilvie added: “We’ve got Loren retiring and Millie is moving to America with a scholarship which is fantastic for her.
“We’ve got to replace those players because they are both big losses.
“Hopefully there is some promising youth coming up and hopefully we can attract players from elsewhere to come in and sign for the club.”
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