HIBERNIAN will go into the summer break as the SWPL1 leaders if, as expected, they beat bottom club Aberdeen at home tomorrow.
They lead Glasgow City by two points, and the ten-times champions have a tougher assignment away to Celtic. The third top tier game sees Rangers trying to maintain their one point lead over Spartans to stay in fifth place.
Although the league resumes on August 9, Hibs then face a fixtures nightmare.
They won’t be able to play games in the first half of the month because they have players in the Scotland under-19 side which is in its own Euro finals, and then they travel to Romania for the three game Women’s Champions League qualifying tournament.
Other teams will also be affected, with Glasgow City unlikely to play any league games in August either. They were due to play Hibs when the Edinburgh club will be in Romania and also have players in the Scotland under-19 squad.
Although City are two points behind Hibs, they have a game in hand and have yet to be beaten. Their only blemish has been a draw against Celtic in their second league game, also at the K Park.
“Celtic have had a couple of poor results recently by their own standards,” City head coach Scott Booth pointed out.
“There’s no doubt they’ve got good players – it’s a strong squad. They gave us a tough game last time, and that’s exactly what we expect again.
“Our players know if we win this game we’ve done a very good job in the first half of the season. It’s important to us that we remain unbeaten.
“We have one or two injury issues, but fingers crossed I’ll be able to pick the team I want.”
Rangers have to find a new goalkeeper for the Spartans game. Regular keeper Jordan Elliott is on holiday and the player brought in to cover for her, Joanna Viollaz, was sent off against Aberdeen on Sunday and is suspended.
The French keeper also misses out on the chance to play against her former club.
In SWPL2, Motherwell have to try to bounce back from an 11-0 hammering by Hibs in the Scottish Cup last Sunday. They sit in second place, but are nine points behind Forfar Farmington – and it will be 12 if they lose at home to the runaway leaders today.
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