Scottish Women’s League One

Ochilview Park

03.12.23

Stenhousemuir moved up to third place in the table as they claimed all three points in their 4-1 win against Airdrie.

The Warriors got straight back to winning ways after last week’s cup exit as they cruised by Airdrie in Sunday afternoon’s Scottish League One tie.

Airdrie started the game two places above Stenhousemuir in third place, albeit having played

a couple of extra games however, the home side claimed that position come the end of the 90.

It was a cagey first half from both sides with not much splitting the two teams. The best chance in the first quarter of the half came from Eva Ralston who found herself one-on-one with the Airdrie goalkeeper Laura Henry, but the keeper made herself tall and stood her ground to keep the score at 0-0.

Neither team was having great possession spells with the away team resulting in long strikes after struggling to break down the Stenhousemuir defence.

Just after the half-hour mark, the Warriors found the breakthrough as trialist Olivia Docherty got the break of the ball and slid the ball into the back of the net on her first game for the club.

No real response from Airdrie after the goal meant for Stenhousemuir ending the first half one goal up.

The second half commenced and the home team started on the front foot. They found themselves 2-0 up just five minutes into the half courtesy of a superb strike from Eva Ralston.

Eirinn Maguire found herself in space on the right and cut the ball back to Ralston who struck an absolute worldie into the top-left corner from 25-yards out.

The next 20 minutes was Airdrie’s best spell of the game. They started to put pressure on the home defence which resulted in the creating a few chances but were unable to convert which led to Stenhousemuir punishing them.

With ten minutes to go, Praise Adebo was brought down by the opposition goalkeeper in the box and converted the penalty herself.

Five minutes later, Rachel Vickerman surged through the backline and played a brilliant through-ball out to Maguire who crossed in and Adebo picked up the scraps to score the Warriors’ fourth goal and her second of the game.

Airdrie did grab a consolation goal in stoppage time. Sophie Harrison scored a fantastic free-kick to kill the home team’s clean sheet hopes which proved to be the last kick of the match.

A perfect response to last week’s defeat as the girls made sure it was a winning Warriors weekend.

Line-ups-

Stenhousemuir | E King, J Connolly ©, R Vickerman, S Montgomery [E Eadie 74’], E Ralston, E Maguire, K Reid [Z Richard-Campbell 74’], A McLarty, P Adebo, O Docherty [M Fantom 85’], M French

Substitutes not used | E Meaney

Goals | Docherty [32’], Ralston [50’], Adebo [84’], [89’ P]

Bookings | E Eadie

Airdrie| L Henry, K Blackwood, E Reid, M Micola Von Furstenrecht, H Magill, A Johnstone, A Whitters, S Harrison, H Sime [M Wright 52’], T Deegan, S Fallon

Substitutes not used | K Ross, M Murray, M Mattinson, C Fraser, C Hynes

Goals | S Harrison [90’]

Bookings |  

Match report by Adam Khanna