HOW significant was Celtic's SWPL Cup win over Glasgow City last Sunday?
Was it a fleeting triumph, as the club's only previous trophy win eleven years earlier proved to be, or will it signal a more permanent change?
City and Hibernian have dominated the modern era. The last time a different club won the league was in 2002-03. That was Kilmarnock, whose Scottish Cup victory in 2002 was also the last time City or Hibs didn't win that competition.
The League Cup has had a slightly wider distribution, although, again, Celtic's 2010 win was the last occasion the dominant duo failed to lift the trophy. That Celtic team contained some huge characters and leaders who have now embarked on coaching, media and sports administrative careers, and they also finished second in the league to City in 2009 and 2010.
Similarly Celtic, under the auspices of current Motherwell head coach Paul Brownlie, boasted one of the best girls' academies in the UK, never mind Scotland. Yet, and presumably because the people at the top of the men's club at the time weren't overly concerned, Celtic fell away.
Experienced players left, the best young ones moved to Glasgow City, and another factor was the national performance centre's switch from Stirling to Edinburgh. That led to four outstanding teenagers, including Abi Harrison and Chloe Arthur, moving to Hibs at the end of the 2014 season.
Celtic, whose trophy win came just three years after the club took over Arsenal North to form their own women's team, spent the last decade as an also-ran. That was also the case with Rangers, who were established a year later and have yet to win anything at the top level.
Professionalism, abetted by the lure of the new lucrative Champions League group stage, has transformed the landscape. Is it inevitable that the richest clubs, Celtic and Rangers, will now dominate women's football in Scotland, just as they do the men's game?
The signs were not good for Glasgow City at Firhill, even if it would be ridiculous to draw conclusions from a one-off cup final. Nevertheless, the manner of the defeat – City had Lee Alexander to thank for Caitlin Hayes' fine header being the only difference between the sides on the scoreline – was striking.
Jo Love's midfield absence was undoubtedly a factor, as, from a Celtic perspective, was the first start since her recent injury of Sarah Harkes. The winners bossed their opponents in most of the one-to-one battles, and both they and Rangers will be encouraged to believe that their day may be finally arriving.
ALSO last Sunday, Elsie Cook was overcome by emotion as she and Lesley Lloyd carried the Women's FA Cup on to the Wembley pitch ahead of the showcase final between Arsenal and Chelsea. The clip was even shown on that evening's main BBC news.
Cook is a massively important, but sadly still unrecognised, figure in women's football. Her mother founded Stewarton Thistle in 1961 after being asked by the town's provost to raise a team for a charity match, Amazingly, in an era when Scottish and Welsh clubs were permitted to enter, the tiny Ayrshire club went on to reach the final of the first ever FA Cup ten years later (and did it again the following season).
Having smashed their way to the 1971 final with huge wins over the brilliantly named Aberdeen Prima Donnas, Manchester Corinthians, Thanet United and Nuneaton Wanderers, Stewarton were entitled to feel confident. They travelled by train to London with the help of fundraising by a local women's church group, but the fairy tale ended when they were beaten 4-1 by Southampton – Rose Reilly got the goal – at the Crystal Palace National Sports Centre.
Cook was the captain, hence why she and her Southampton counterpart, Lloyd, were asked to take the trophy on to the pitch to celebrate 50 years of the competition.
“We'd messaged back and forward for the week before the final, and when we met it was as if we were best pals,” Cook reports. The tears came because she was contrasting the big Wembley occasion with the hostility and disrespect she and her Stewarton team-mates were forced to endure.
Cook did, however, hold it together long enough to give the thumbs up and exchange smiles in the tunnel with her fellow Ayrshire warrior Erin Cuthbert. Chelsea won 3-0.
And finally
So, what became of Stewarton Thistle?
They were taken over in 1999 by the Kilmarnock side which lifted the Scottish Cup in 2001, retained it in 2002, and won the SWPL 1 title in 2002-03.
It's a funny old game.
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