Linfield bank European financial bonanza as UEFA prize money exceeds £1million mark
The Blues will now face Faroese side Vikingur in the third qualifying round with the winner securing a Conference League Play-Off.
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Scotsman
an hour ago
- Scotsman
Inside Hibs' devastated dressingroom as squad plots way to make sure pain doesn't linger
O'Hora admits Midtjylland goal was punch in guts - but there is no chance of letting heads hang Sign up to our Football newsletter Sign up Thank you for signing up! Did you know with a Digital Subscription to The Scotsman, you can get unlimited access to the website including our premium content, as well as benefiting from fewer ads, loyalty rewards and much more. Learn More Sorry, there seem to be some issues. Please try again later. Submitting... No time for feeling sorry for yourself. That was the message coming out of the Hibs camp less than an hour after a painful European defeat by Midtjylland. As well as Hibs did in competing with an accomplished and seasoned European opponent before succumbing to a Junior Brumado bicycle kick in the last minute of extra time in their Europa League qualifier, it is back to the bread and butter for David Gray's men. The domestic season kicks off on Sunday for the Hibees with a trip to Dens Park to face Dundee. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Hibs finished third in the Premiership last season, which permitted them to enjoy a night like Thursday against Midtjylland. While Hibs were defeated 3-2 on aggregate by the Danes, they remain in Europe and have a Conference League third qualifying round match against Partizan Belgrade to navigate next week. The matches come thick and fast. Hibs' Warren O'Hora looks on after the defeat by Midtjylland. | SNS Group For Hibs' Irish defender Warren O'Hora, the past two weeks have been a huge learning curve. The 25-year-old is experiencing European football for the first time in his career and wants more. Performing well in the league opens the door to that once more. 'Devastated is probably the word for it,' O'Hora said to sum up the feeling in the Hibs dressing-room after Thursday night. 'We gave it our all over two legs. The goals that they scored over two legs are of very, very high quality. A free-kick, a 20-yard strike and an overhead kick, which is very, very hard to take. 'Did they cut us open much? Did they have chances? Not as much. It didn't really feel like it on the pitch. I felt like we had chances as well, but to lose a game with two goals like that tonight is a very hard one to take.' Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad From Dens Park to the Balkans Belgrade may be looming but O'Hora is looking closer to home first. 'That's next week,' he said. 'The league starts on Sunday, we regroup right now. We can come out of this game with two legs with our heads held high. We went toe-to-toe 200 odd minutes with a team at a very, very high level. I don't think we have anything to be ashamed of. 'We have a lot of positives to take into Sunday. It's definitely going to be a tough game. It's the first game of the season, we want to start well. We have no time to let our heads hang. We'll come in, we'll recover, and we'll go through everything. 'We'll definitely look at things we could have done better. I'm not saying we'll just go away from the game, but we'll definitely look at things where we can improve, because that's what we've been doing through the whole start. Midtjylland celebrate their winning goal at Easter Road. | SNS Group 'Since I've come to the club, that's the way it works. After every performance, we look at what we can do better, what we did well. But like I said, we can't let it linger. The changing room we have, us boys won't let anybody feel sorry for themselves or anything like that, because it's in the past now, we can't control it. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad 'We still have another opportunity next week [in Europe], but at the end of this season, you want to be able to do something here in Europe again. That is obviously a goal that we'll set, no doubt about it. But we need to start taking it game by game, and we'll start this Sunday.' Hibs started last season poorly, losing 3-0 to St Mirren. It set the tone for a miserable first three months of the league campaign in which they won just one match before turning things around spectacularly from December onwards and finishing third. There is no doubt the squad that Gray has assembled has character. Hibs did not feel overawed O'Hora listed the attributes that were on show against Midtjylland. 'Discipline, work-rate,' he said. 'I think we always knew that we'd probably have to give up some possession, that we'll get into areas. I think we worked our socks off. I thought we started at both legs really, really well. We got a disallowed goal today as well, and the first leg started really well. 'We can play against that level, we believed. We knew for ourselves, we believed that we can get something from this game, and we did, we brought a draw back to Easter Road, which is exactly what we needed. Obviously you want to win, but you want to bring something back, you don't want to lose the tie. I think today's performance showed that we can play against opposition at this level.' Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad There was a special moment against the Danes in extra time when Rocky Bushiri levelled. Easter Road celebrated wildly. It ultimately didn't give Hibs what they wanted - but it was a goal to relish. O'Hora wants more of that. Easter Road was left delighted by Rocky Bushiri's strike. | SNS Group 'That's why you play football, isn't it?' he added. 'It's for moments like that. It's so nice. Rocky scored so many important goals for us last year, and he's just scored another one for us this year. That's a credit to him. He's a real goal threat in the box. 'You can see the reaction from the fans, singing his name. You see everybody celebrating, the whole bench celebrates. There's boys that didn't play, didn't start, didn't come on, whatever. 'But it's all forgotten about, that's how together this group has been since we've first come in. And we showed that today, and we're going to need that tenfold for the whole season, which no doubt we will.'
The Herald Scotland
an hour ago
- The Herald Scotland
Alison McConnell: Why timing of Crichton's Rangers switch is bizarre
Crichton completed her UEFA Pro Licence this summer and, as well as BBC media work, she has coached with Motherwell and City since retiring. Taking over at Rangers will be her first time not as a sidekick but at the wheel. Few would begrudge her the chance to take on what is clearly a huge role as she takes over from Jo Potter. But the timing of the appointment will be a source of some consternation. Rangers headed to Italy this week for the last lap of pre-season, with Crichton still in position at Petershill with City. Given the fact that the season kicks off in just over a fortnight, the lack of a compensation agreement prior meant that Crichton was still in at City this week as her new charges went through their paces under the sun in Italy. It is a bizarre turn of events. It would have been in everyone's best interests for Crichton to cut ties with a City side that – in a matter of weeks - she will now be in direct competition for when it comes to a title fight. Read more: Clearly, City are well within their rights to hold out for an adequate compensation package given that they are losing an assistant manager a fortnight before the season kicks off. They are also right to feel irked at losing a key member of their managerial team to their rivals. In truth, there are few surprises really in the SWPL given how often teams play one another, but being privy to the preparations and plans for the season before heading to Rangers will have aggrieved City. But from Crichton's perspective, barely getting her feet under the desk before the curtain comes up on the new campaign means that she is straight into it. She inherits a team that have lost six first-team players, including the fairly prolific Rio Hardy, so will have ample work to do in order to have a squad ready for what lies ahead. The understanding is that Crichton was identified by the Rangers hierarchy as having what they wanted to take the club forward following Potter's departure. That may well mean that the candidates who made applications for the job were not deemed up to standard or that finances were not on the same page from those, but it seems odd that the decision was not made some weeks back. That would have alleviated some of the stress as the clock now ticks loudly ahead of an opening weekend where Rangers are away to Montrose. On the pitch is where she will be judged with the remit for Crichton very much the same as it is for Russell Martin; go and win the league. AND ANOTHER THING Elsie Cook has written her story – 'A Kiss fae Pele' – with Tom Brown, a book that went on sale on Friday, priced at £22. Most will be well aware of her role within Scottish women's football and it is only fitting that she should be inducted into the SFA Hall of Fame. Better late than never. But in amongst the tales of meeting Pele and gaining the respect of Jock Stein, what resonated was the tremendous personal cost that came with what can only be described as a vocation to football. Written in the Ayrshire vernacular, her tale of heading to Edinburgh, two small kids in tow, to hand in her notice as secretary of the SWFA after her husband had essentially offered her an ultimatum, is quite something. The heaviness she felt abandoning the post and then the swiftness with which she accepted the manager's job at the same meeting had this reader cheering her all the way. But it is easy to forget the sheer strength of character that was necessary for women such as Elsie Cook to withstand the massive societal pressures around their involvement in football. Pushing through that to advocate for the rights of women and of girls to play football required not only courage of conviction but a bravery that is difficult to truly appreciate. AND FINALLY You may have heard that Sarina Wiegman's Lionesses successfully defended their status as European Champions with a penalty shoot-out win over Spain. Spare a thought for those Scottish based players who will return to the domestic fold in the next few weeks to hear all about it. But while all is rosy in England's garden, it illustrates that massive leaps that the game has taken south of the border will Scotland have fallen off the edge of a cliff. Melissa Andreatta will know that she has her work cut out for her as she looks to steer Scotland towards Brazil and the FIFA Women's World Cup in 2027. Qualification is imperative if Scotland are to push on in both a domestic and international sense.
BBC News
10 hours ago
- BBC News
Linfield stay top of Women's Premiership with big win
Linfield hammered Crusaders Strikers 6-0 to remain top of the Women's Premiership table ahead of Glens defeated Derry City 4-2 to stay one point behind the Blues with a game in Rangers defeated winless Larne 3-1 in Friday's other were not in action as they prepare for their Champions League Group Six game against Georgian opponents Lanchkhuti on Saturday in Myles netted a quick-fire hat-trick in the first half as Linfield blew Crusaders away at Seaview. Zoe McGlynn added a fourth before Eve Reilly and Cora Chambers rounded out the emphatic who play their game in hand against Larne on Monday, kept the pressure on their title rivals with a 4-2 win away to Derry City. Jess Foy and Rachel Rogan put the visitors into a two-goal lead but Tara O'Connor-Farren pulled a goal back for Weir soon restored the Glens' two-goal margin, but the hosts hit back again through O'Connor-Farren's second of the Rogan netted her second of the game to secure a big three points on the road for Kim Turner's side. Lisburn Rangers moved back into the top half of the table with a 3-1 win away to Larne. Tierna Bell opened the scoring for Lisburn but the hosts levelled through Kirsty Rangers retook the lead with 15 minutes left through Gracie Conway and Abbie Smyth secured the win.
