Glasgow City 0-3 Rangers: Jo Potter's side seal cup double to take the edge off title heartache

Daily Mail​

25-05-2025

Glasgow City 0-3 Rangers: Jo Potter's side seal cup double to take the edge off title heartache
Redemption of sorts, then, for Rangers. Jo Potter's side, still smarting from the way the league was lost to Hibs, used their frustrations to swat away an insipid Glasgow City at Hampden and put their name on the Scottish Cup.
Mia McAulay got the ball rolling with an opener midway through the first half before Kirsty Howat scored either side of the interval.
To add insult to injury, City finished the game with ten players on the pitch with defender Samantha van Diemen dismissed after VAR intervened to upgrade a yellow card to red with ten minutes of the game remaining.
Rangers put in a dominant, measured and clinical performance as they claimed the Scottish Gas Women's Scottish Cup, making it a League Cup and Scottish Cup double for Potter's side.
It will not offset the hangover left by failing to claim the SWPL title but it will take the edge off. The optics of the campaign, too, are altered by what the trophy cabinet holds now.
The frustration for Potter will be that, had her side produced this kind of performance against Hibs at Ibrox last weekend, there is every chance they would have been toasting a treble.
Rangers' Kirsty Howat scores their second goal in the Scottish Cup final at Hampden Park
Mia McAulay celebrates netting the opener for Rangers in a 3-0 victory against Glasgow City
Rangers' players celebrate with the trophy after their convincing victory sealed a cup double
That will be something for her to ruminate over across the summer but certainly the break looks far more appealing now than it would have done had this been a different outcome for Rangers.
For Glasgow City, so long the dominant force in the women's game, this is now two successive seasons where they have ended up with nothing to show for their efforts.
Their runners-up place in the SWPL will afford them access to the non-champions path of the Champions League but their failure to lay a glove on Rangers at Hampden will rankle.
They lacked conviction and belief as they struggled to impose themselves at any point across the game.
Both teams had headed to the national stadium with a point to prove. There was a suspicion that Potter had the tougher of the jobs in terms of picking up her players after the manner in which the title slipped away from them.
By the time McAulay had put Rangers in front, Potter's side had twice hit the woodwork.
It was a portent that City had failed to heed, with McAulay sclaffing an effort off the outside of the post in the opening stages before Kathy Hill had whacked a header off the bar.
The opener came as Van Diemen brought the ball out of defence but her pass was cut out. McAulay eluded the challenge from Claire Walsh before spearing a right-footed diagonal effort low into the bottom corner.
Gers skipper Nicola Docherty was forced off shortly after the opener. Injured in the opening minutes after a collision with Amy Muir as both players slid in, Docherty appeared to take a knee to the face and the full-back was forced off, clearly upset at the manner in which her afternoon was prematurely ended.
It did little to put Rangers off their stride, though.
City hit the crossbar through Natalia Wrobel before Rangers added a second.
Katie Wilkinson was the architect, whipping a ball into the feet of Howat. She brought it down, sent Van Diemen the wrong way with a slight feint before turning and driving a low effort beyond Lee Gibson.
It could have been game over for the Petershill side. Gibson was forced into a save after McAulay was allowed to break through one-on-one with the stopper spreading herself to deny the teenager.
City tried to force their way into the game before the break but their pressure came to nothing as Rangers headed into the interval in firm command.
The second period was still in its infancy as Rangers put it to bed.
Chelsea Cornet broke through City's backline and squared the ball across the six-yard box with Howat sliding in to beat Gibson.
City appealed for offside but television images showed that Cornet was well on as she ghosted in behind.
City's lack of composure when they did get into decent areas undermined any hope they had of hauling themselves back into the game. Nicole Kozlova ought to have burst the net when she was picked out inside the box but, with the goal gaping, she inexplicably hit her effort wide of the target.
From there on, Rangers headed to the other side of the park and flirted with a fourth, with Gibson having to deny McAulay as the Ibrox side kept at it.
For all that Rangers were well on top, Potter remained on edge as she patrolled her technical area constantly barking instructions.
Van Diemen's dismissal caused confusion inside the stadium; VAR is not widely in use across the women's game, and there was a long delay to check Van Diemen's foul.
Rangers could have had more. Jane Ross, on for her final appearance before she now heads into retirement, unselfishly squared for Rio Hardy who blazed wildly wide when she should have buried it. Rangers did not need it.
This week's post-match huddle on the turf was all smiles as they claimed the final piece of silverware of the season.
There will remain a lingering sense of what might have been this season but for the moment there was contentment.