Three defeats in a row, fourth in the table, Celtic FC Women now nine points behind Hibs | OneFootball

In men’s football if a Celtic manager lost three consecutive league matches there would be an uproar with ‘sack the board’ protests and so on, especially if the performances merited nothing from the nine on offer…

Amy Gallacher in action on Friday 28 March in the SWPL1 match between Celtic FC Women and Glasgow City at New Douglas Park Hamilton, Photo AJ (The Celtic Star)

Okay it could be argued that perhaps one from nine would have been a more accurate return from Celtic FC Women’s matches against Hearts, Hibs and Glasgow City as Elena Sadiku’s first full season as Celtic manager, after a promising start, goes from bad to worse and is rapidly heading towards being calamitous.

Caitlin Hayes transfer

Caitlin Hayes left the club in January after a well publicised fall-out with the manager. Caitlin is articulate, confident and never afraid to stand-up for herself and the club she loves. A January move to Brighton, where she’s seen even less action than Matt O’Riley after he made the same journey earlier in the season, has left Celtic with a massive gap in defence that has simply been ignored by the club and the manager.

Lucy Ashworth-Clifford in action on Friday 28 March in the SWPL1 match between Celtic FC Women and Glasgow City at New Douglas Park Hamilton, Photo AJ (The Celtic Star)

Deeply concerning performances

The standard of football in the games against the two Edinburgh sides was deeply concerning. The falling, failing Scottish Champions looked bereft of any sort of tactical plan. Hearts and Hibs, that Celtic would comfortably beat previously had the easiest of tasks securing the three points as a collection of individuals in Celtic shirts did their own thing, launching the ball in the direction of the opponents goal from anywhere on the pitch and achieving absolutely nothing.

Hitherto top performers, players with genuine quality like Amy Gallacher and Lucy Ashworth Clifford look lost, Amy such a wonderful player but is essentially an empty jersey this season. She’s on the pitch but has contributed literally nothing at all.

Kit Lofeski in action on Friday 28 March in the SWPL1 match between Celtic FC Women and Glasgow City at New Douglas Park Hamilton, Photo AJ (The Celtic Star)

Next up is theRangers

Next up for Celtic FC Women is theRangers and the only good news is that it’s a fortnight away.

The SWPL1 table currently makes dreadful viewing for any Celtic supporter. This year the top three have become the top five as the two Edinburgh sides, particularly Hibs, have upped their game and got their acts together in terms of increased investment, better squads and better coaching. They join Glasgow City, theRangers and Celtic FC Women in the top six along with Motherwell, who like Celtic are struggling.

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In terms of the league before the split the rest of the teams managed just three draws but no wins against the leading five sides all season. So it’s really a matter of collecting those points, playing the first two head to heads against rival big guns and then getting to the split to fight it out for the title.

Murphy Agnew in action on Friday 28 March in the SWPL1 match between Celtic FC Women and Glasgow City at New Douglas Park Hamilton, Photo AJ (The Celtic Star)

A three horse race excluding Celtic

At the moment it looks very much like a three horse race for the trophy between Hibs, Glasgow City and theRangers with Celtic FC Women and Hearts contesting fourth spot. Is that acceptable?  It is certainly a regression especially from a side that are current Champions.

Celtic FC made over well £400,000 from the UEFA Women’s Champions League which ended pointless but with heads held high after home and away defeats to FC Twente, Real Madrid and Chelsea. That incidentally is a huge amount of money for a SWPL side to earn.

The club’s response was to sell Caitlin Hayes in January and so began a steep decline.

Elena Sadiku, Celtic FC Women v theRangers, New Douglas Park, Sky Sports Cup semi-final. Sunday 19 January 2025. Photo AJ (The Celtic Star)

It’s embarrassingly easy

Tactically Celtic appear to play three at the back that turns to a four when pushed back. The three includes just one central defender, the veteran skipper Kelly Clark who has been powerless to stop a succession of goals conceded by simply punting the ball into the six yard box to claim an easy reward. It’s embarrassingly easy.

In the Scottish Cup defeat to Glasgow City Celtic were 1-0 ahead and playing well before two instances described above turned the tie and knocked Celtic out of the cup. A trophy-less season beckons and what is worrying is that in all three competitions Celtic FC Women haven’t even come close.

Elena Sadiku, Celtic v theRangers, 17 November 2024. Photo AJ (The Celtic Star)

The stats don’t lie

Celtic’s season has been scarred by a failure to beat any of the top sides in the country on a consistent basis. The stats don’t lie, theRangers are unbeaten against Celtic five games, Glasgow City have not lost to Celtic since the second game of the season. Hibs have taken four points so far this season from Celtic FC Women and Hearts have taken six. The results are showing a bit further down this article.

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Here are the results from the SWPL1 games this weekend…

And here’s how the table – that never lies – looks this morning…

On paper there’s still a chance

On paper the title is still a possibility for Celtic FC Women if all games are won. But let’s not kid ourselves on. With the way the team is playing, the drop in form from our top players, the erratic team selections and maybe  dressing room friction then this is only heading one way.

A curious thing happened on Friday night

A curious thing happened on Friday night at Hamilton. Glasgow City were well worth their 1-0 lead as the half-time whistle sounded. The Celtic skipper Kelly Clark on here way to the tunnel stopped to talk to Elena Sadiku who remained seated on the bench with her staff. The Celtic captain after a minute or so made her way to the dressing room but Elena Sadiku and her staff continued to sit on the bench for perhaps five minutes looking at an i-Pad, before heading up the tunnel.

Celtic were better in the second half, got an equaliser then conceded another farcical goal (see above) to lose the match.

Here’s the Celtic FC Women’s manager speaking about the game in her post-match interview with Celtic TV.

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One of the comments was this…

Top 5 results league & cup GLA W HIB D RAN D HEA L GLA D RAN L RAN L HEA W GLA L GLA D HIB L HEA L GLA L 2 wins in 13. Still 6 games against them to go.

‘We’ve struggled for goals all season’

Other comments: ‘We’ve struggled for goals all season, either a lot of players are massively under performing or they’ll aren’t playing for the manager – the more this goes on it looks like its the latter. This has gone on long enough.’…

‘Central defence missing don’t help but same old excuses.’…

Caitlin Hayes, Celtic v theRangers, 17 November 2024. Photo AJ (The Celtic Star)

‘Poor manager not good enough in the big games! We dominated city when Fran was there. We are a backward team now with you as manager. Thanks but if you can’t beat the big teams in Scotland it’s time to go!’…

‘I don’t know what she thinks she saw tonight because that performance was brutally bad (it was actually much better than the previous two games – ED). From team selection to tactics to subs it was all bad. One good moment (the goal) doesn’t make a decent performance. Times up Elena, you gave it a shot it just never worked out.’…

‘The Rangers and City invest much more than Celtic in the women’s team’

‘The Rangers and City invest much more than Celtic in the women’s team. What a surprise!’

Those are some of the comments in response to Elena Sadiku’s post match interview. Before that Celtic FC Women posted on X the final score (see below) and we’ll look at some of the comments to that too…

“Clear out required, manager & coaching team need replaced, not 1 player has improved, team wise we’ve regressed, absolutely shambolic recruitment with terrible signings. A coach who thinks she’s better than she is.”

“I don’t expect Celtic to win every game, but I do expect them to play football’

“I don’t expect Celtic to win every game, but I do expect them to play football. We’ve not played any decent football since the opening game at Parkhead. Players are afraid of the ball and every one of them has regressed under Eleana. Root and branch clear out needed.”

“Usual 20 decent minutes in the second half every match. Can’t believe Hayes left and hasn’t kicked a ball for Brighton. We’ve just left the gap in defence that she filled.”

Natalie Ross in action on Friday 28 March in the SWPL1 match between Celtic FC Women and Glasgow City at New Douglas Park Hamilton, Photo AJ (The Celtic Star)

Kerrydale Street have an ongoing thread for Celtic FC Women games. Here’s some of the post-match reaction to Friday night’s defeat to Glasgow City.

The league is pretty much gone

“I thought City deserved the win. Celtic Women not offering a lot of threat in the final third especially in the first half. The league is pretty much gone. They might even be struggling to finish in the top 4 now if recent form continues. I doubt if Elena will be there next season.”

“Surely the manager has to go? She’s not close to being good enough. A lot of players also need binned and replaced with some power, pace and skill for the new season. They seem to have nothing to offer.”

in action on Friday 28 March in the SWPL1 match between Celtic FC Women and Glasgow City Emma Lawton at New Douglas Park Hamilton, Photo AJ (The Celtic Star)

‘Third defeat in a row. One win in the last six games’

“Third defeat in a row. One win in the last six games. And the next game is (the)Rangers away who we’ve beat once in the last 11 matches against them. Good players allowed to leave and the replacements not up to it. If I asked the bookies they’d be saying a (the)Rangers treble is a high possibility. Especially after the Hibs 5-0 meltdown in the League Cup Final. Celtic PLC need to decide what exactly they want from the Women’s team. One League in nearly 20 years. If it’s just a case of paying lip service, which it looks like at the moment, then so be it. Not much the 300/400 regulars can do about it. You’d be laughed out of Celtic Park bringing the matter up at a Shareholders AGM. Here’s to Broadwood on April 13th when we score a barrowload…”

‘Well done PLC’

“Only saw the first half last night and the team is virtually unrecognisable from the team of last season. Clueless up front and weak as water at the back. It reeks of poor leadership. Either take it seriously and get some decent talent in or admit it’s lip service and we move on.  Both our women and our youth set ups are a right laugh. Well done PLC.”

Peter Lawwell, Chairman of Celtic, Dermot Desmond, Non-Executive Director of Celtic, and Michael Nicholson, CEO of Celtic, are seen in attendance prior to the Scottish Premiership match between Celtic and theRangers at Celtic Park on March 16, 2025. (Photo by Ian MacNicol/Getty Images)

“Scored 40 less goals than theRangers at this point and conceded more goals than any team in the top 5. It’s easy to see where the issues are.”

“Concerning direction of travel from our board but not entirely surprising.”

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