TODAY'S televised SWPL Cup final at Firhill promises to be an intriguing occasion. Glasgow City have won 30 top three trophies, whereas Celtic's sole success came in this competition in 2010.

Having also won two and drawn two of the four games between the sides since the start of last season, City will start favourites. However, one asset both teams share is an ability to find a way to win, no matter how unpromising the circumstances.

Celtic are expected to have 17-year-old Rachael Johnstone in goal. She vies with the established Chloe Logan for the position but, having played in the 2-1 semi-final win over Hibernian, it has been indicated she will get the nod again.

Johnstone has a great back story, having lived from the age of one on the Isle of Lewis (her parents moved there from the central belt). Now the Scotland under-19 goalkeeper, she signed a professional contract with Celtic in September – meaning the accumulated air miles between Stornoway and Glasgow to play for the club's youth teams have paid off very handsomely.

“Me and my mum would fly down on a Friday straight after school,” Johnstone confirms. “I trained Friday night and Saturday, played a game on Sunday, then got the 7am flight on Monday back to school.

“I did that for a year until Covid hit, then I managed to move down and now I'm playing full time. It has been a dream of mine since I started playing to be a professional footballer, so to be able to say it's with the team my whole family supports, and I support, is incredible.”

Lee Alexander, the City goalkeeper, was a huge role model for Johnstone growing up in the Outer Hebrides. The teenager still cherishes a photograph of the pair taken when the Scotland No 1 did some coaching at an under-16 training camp.

“I look up to her and always have done,” Johnstone said. “She played really well against Spain on Tuesday and I feel bad for her.”

While Johnstone will be playing by far the biggest game of her early career, City stand-in captain Hayley Lauder has pretty much seen and done it all. Her continuing absence from Pedro Martinez Losa squads, when players with manifestly fewer strings to their bows are being selected, is beyond comprehension.

“It will be a really tough game,” the versatile 31-year-old, who has 103 Scotland caps, predicts. “Celtic have started well again this year and they've now had experience of the Champions League.

“I think that always helps teams. When you play top sides in the Champions League you find out a lot about yourselves and that's where we've been fortunate over the years.”

While Celtic are seeking to double their trophy wins, Lauder hopes to bring her personal haul to eleven. Just one has been in the League Cup, however, thanks to Hibernian's recent dominance.

There will be a different name on the trophy tonight, and it is also a first opportunity for respective head coaches Eileen Gleeson and Fran Alonso to win silverware in Scotland.

 

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AS Celtic's young goalkeeper alluded to, Lee Alexander saved Scotland from a humiliating double figure World Cup qualifying defeat to Spain in Seville on Tuesday.

I was at the Tony Macaroni Arena when Anna Signeul's side were humbled 7-0 by Netherlands in a 2016 friendly, and again in Utrecht nine months later when England inflicted a 6-0 demolition in the opening group game of Euro 2017.

Both were chastening experiences, but neither was as completely one-sided in terms of possession, attempts on goal, and every other facet of the game as Tuesday night's. It's hard enough to compete against a much more technically accomplished side, but when they're also winning nearly all the 50-50 challenges it becomes impossible.

“It's very disappointing and it shows that we have a bit to go, especially physically,” Signeul said after the Netherlands defeat. In that regard there has been no improvement over the last five years, and probably regression.

Scotland were missing some big players against a superb Spain side, but even so there has been a lack of consistency in Martinez Losa's selections. That includes numerous positional switches.

Hungary's home win over Ukraine enabled an overall gain in terms of achieving a World Cup play-off place. That was thrust of the head coach's post-match remarks, but his side came perilously close to dropping five points in the recent home games against these two lower seeded nations.

Performances are continuing to decline and turning that around is the big challenge facing the Spaniard.