'It feels like right time' - the Scotland pair bowing out in cup final
Women's Scottish Cup final: Glasgow City v RangersWhen: Sunday 25 May Where: Hampden Park, Glasgow Kick-off: 14:00 BSTCoverage: Watch live on BBC One Scotland and BBC Sport website & app
The Scottish Cup final on Sunday marks the end of the season - and two stellar careers.Glasgow City forward Fiona Brown and Rangers striker Jane Ross both call time on their playing days in the Hampden showpiece.The pair are Scotland team-mates and the symmetry doesn't end there. Ross, 35, began her trophy-laden career at City, the club where 30-year-old Brown is calling it a day.Brown's decision to retire comes after fighting back from four ACL injuries, but she hopes her involvement in football isn't over."I've had a long year to think about it. Of course you grapple with the fact that it's so tempting to try and keep going," she told BBC Scotland in the build-up to the final."It's probably a decision that's come earlier than what I would have liked but of course there's positives to that as well."Whatever comes next is going to be really exciting. I've had a lot of time to think about it. I don't know if it will settle in or be able to be digested until after Sunday."I'm young in terms of football and I've still managed to achieve way more than I could have ever dreamed of."I'm in a really good physical place but there's risk and unfortunately there's only so many times you can get certain things fixed, and I have probably run the course on that one."I want to stay in the game. I'm very comfortable within the women's game, and I feel like I have a lot to give, even if it's not physically on the pitch."Brown came on in the last ten minutes of her side's 2-0 SWPL win against Hearts last weekend - as City pipped Rangers to second place and a Champions League spot - and says it was a "perfect" day."It was important to me mentally to prove that I was retiring as a player and not just walking away injured. That's been stuck in my mind since day one of the rehab that I wanted to do that," she added.Ross, meanwhile, insists being able to retire at Rangers is "a dream come true.""It feels like the right time for me. I've loved the career I've had and I've always kind of known the point where it would be the right time," she said."I'm looking forward to embracing other aspects of life and looking forward to the future."I could only have dreamed of what I have managed to do in my career when I started out at 16 years old at Glasgow City."The way the women's game has developed in the time that I've been playing, the 19 years, it's been massive. To see where the game's at now is exciting and I've loved every minute."Ross hopes to bow out holding the trophy at Hampden, where she has fond memories of the semi-final win over Aberdeen."We'll see how Sunday goes, but getting the 90 minutes at Hampden, scoring a hat-trick, it couldn't really have gone much better for me, a very pleasing day," she added.
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