Celtic’s Kelly Clark revelled in making history and said she could never have dreamed of lifting the Women’s Scottish Cup at Hampden Park as a young girl.
Captain Clark and her side rallied from last weekend’s league heartbreak to beat rivals Rangers 2-0 and win the cup for the second successive season.
It was the first time the final was contested at the national stadium, with supporters of both teams turning out in numbers to mark the historic fixture.
“It’s a dream come true,” said Clark.
The 28-year-old added: “I’ve watched Celtic men do that so many times in my 10 years at Celtic. I come to all the finals when I can.
“To do it and be down in history with such a special group of players, it just feels amazing. It’s amazing that it includes a crowd with lots of little girls, who can see what they can do in Scotland.
“This year for women’s football has been unbelievable and I hope it just keeps going and going.
“This is genuinely what dreams are made of. To be honest, as a kid, I probably didn’t dream this because it was just so far from reality. But now that it is reality, I’m just delighted.
“We love playing in front of a crowd. Even five years ago, I never would have expected [playing] on this park, in front of all of them. It’s just amazing.”
‘Unfair’ if Celtic hadn’t won silverware – Alonso
Celtic were denied a first league title in devastating fashion last weekend as Glasgow City’s Lauren Davidson scored in the 92nd minute to seal the club’s 16th SWPL trophy with a 1-0 win over Rangers.
But manager Fran Alonso praised the way his players recovered from the disappointment, saying his side deserved to lift the cup.
“It would have been unfair if those girls didn’t have silverware,” he said. “I couldn’t be any more proud.
“You can’t imagine how hurt we were [missing out on title last weekend]. We were two minutes away from achieving our dream. Wednesday wasn’t the best training session. You could see heads dropped. From Thursday, it was in the past.
“Now we have back-to-back Scottish Cups. It’s incredible.”
A large Celtic support celebrated wildly at Hampden as goals from Natasha Flint and Claire O’Riordan retained the trophy.
Flint said: “The fans are ridiculous week in, week out for us. We couldn’t do it without them. Before coming here, I didn’t know there was a team like it.”
O’Riordan added: “It’s a special occasion playing in the national stadium here in Scotland. The fans love it, we love it.
“Especially in the last couple of weeks, we’ve seen the crowd behind us massively. It’s about them. Really what we’ve done today is reward them with another trophy for the club.”
Source – BBC Sport
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