The Ghirls beat The Tangerines 7-0 at the Excelsior Stadium in their penultimate match before the winter break.
Inside the first five minutes, Celtic already had the lead, through Clarissa Larisey. After good play down the left, Liv Chance found the Canadian striker as she finished comfortably by the United keeper.
After a dominate display in the opening 20, Celtic got the second goal they deserved. Amy Gallacher crossed low from the left side and Shen Mengyu arrived at the back post to get her first goal of the season.
Within five minutes of the second goal, The Hoops had a third. Gallacher received the ball at the edge of the box with her back to goal but after a brilliant turn she unleashed an even better strike, which flew into the roof of the net.
At the break Fran Alonso made one change, Larisey made way as a precaution after she picked up a knock a few minutes before half time. Her replacement was last seasons PFA Young player of the year nominee, Maria McAneny.
The Celts started the the second period as they started the first and on the hour mark they had a fourth. After the ball had initially been lost, Mengyu was alive to win it back and fired a great strike into the top corner from inside the area to get her second of the game.
In the 73rd minute, substitute Tegan Bowie, who looked to still be feeling the affects of a previous challenge, ran down the left flank before picking out Gallacher, her shot was blocked but the rebound fell straight to McAneny, who rolled the ball calmly into the bottom corner to score her first senior goal in green and white and give Celtic a five goal lead.
With 10 minutes left of play, Celtic had a sixth. The two most recent of Fran’s substitutes combined as Jacynta showed good trickery down the left to get the ball on to her right side before picking out Tiree Burchill as the 17 year old’s volley went in off the underside of the crossbar.
After a Celtic corner, the away side failed to clear their lines and Mengyu finished from close range to complete her first career hat-trick, which ended off an epic display from the home side.
Post-match Fran said: “I think the girls played fantastic football, we work all week with a game plan and I think they executed it very, very well.”
The most important thing is, you know a lot of fans, a lot of young fans coming to see the team today, they can feel inspired because the girls put on a top, top performance.”
Fran also talked about The Ghirls next match at home to Motherwell in two weeks time: “Yeah of course, it’s a tough opponent, Motherwell, they have been a little bit inconsistent this season but they are good, they are organised, they are aggressive so we have to make sure we prepare, we’ve got two weeks now, we have to prepare and try and go to Christmas with maximum points.”
Celtic’s second goalscorer, Amy Gallacher said: Yeah, it was a great team performance, a lot of goals and different goal scorers as well so everyone’s happy with the performance.”
The Hoops final match before the winter break will be in two weeks time as they host Motherwell in Airdrie. Glasgow City and Rangers both picked up wins in their matches earlier in the day meaning Celtic remain three points behind the previous and one behind the latter and will be hoping to put pressure on their city rivals with a win in their final match before the break.
@ethanbarlow61
