Scottish Women’s Premier League leaders Glasgow City head to Edinburgh to face off against champions Hibernian tomorrow night in a huge clash at the top of the table.
City head into the game at the summit of the table, reaching the top by defeating Rangers 1-0 at Ibrox on Sunday afternoon thanks to a late Nicole Kozlova volley, and can stretch their lead to five points with a win at Meadowbank.
Leanne Ross spoke to the media post-match at Ibrox and was asked if she was delighted to go top, saying: “Yeah, but it's early in the season, all the teams are just feeling their way into the season. We've had a good start, but it's about making sure that we can continue that right throughout the season.
“I think we've built a really strong squad in terms of the depth that we have, and hopefully we've got that opportunity to go and rotate players and they can come in and have the same impact.
“But it's three points in one game, and it's early in the season to be saying that we're the team to beat at the moment."
Her opposition in the dugout was her former assistant and teammate at both club and country Leanne Crichton, and she spoke about putting their friendship to the side for 90 minutes: “We're both just doing our jobs for our teams.
“She'll be bitterly disappointed that she's lost the game. I'm delighted that we've won the game, but it's a game, so we'll still catch up afterwards and everything's just going to be exactly the same. We go and do our jobs and we carry on with our lives outside of football."
Glasgow City famously won the league title at Ibrox in 2023, defeating Rangers with a last-minute goal to leapfrog both Old Firm sides and snatch the title, and Ross commented on that good record they’ve built up at Rangers’ home ground: “I think they quite enjoy coming here to play, we've got a good record here.
“But it's always a difficult game, it's always quite close, and probably one chance is going to win it for either team. I'm just pleased that we've come out on top today."
The former Scotland international did praise Rangers’ play despite getting the better of the Blue Belles: “I didn't think we played particularly well today in terms of in possession. I think that's a lot to do with the way that Rangers pressed, they were high, and they were aggressive, and we found it difficult to get into the rhythm of the game and play the football that we like to play.”
For Rangers, goalkeeper Jenna Fife admitted the result was a setback but insisted there were positives to build on: “There's so much to learn from and we'll look at it, we'll review it, we'll be back at training tomorrow reviewing it and we'll go from there, we just need to keep moving forward, but individually and collectively there's a lot to learn.”
Fife admitted the result was a setback but echoed Ross’s view that it is far too early to be drawing conclusions in the title race: “We've gone through a transition this season with players and managers and it was never going to be plain sailing.
“We were never going to come into this league and win every game, as much as we'd love to. This league’s too competitive for that. Of course it's a setback today, we know that, but I wouldn’t say a major setback considering the time of the season.
“We’ve got massive games coming up, and it’s a perfect chance to bounce back. As I say, we just need to keep moving forward with the talent we’ve got in the squad, we’re more than capable of doing that.”
Despite the loss, the stopper underlined the importance of Ibrox becoming a stronghold for Rangers this season: “It's amazing, we all want to play here week in, week out, it's brilliant. We've got a few games coming up here so really looking forward to that and it's excellent that the club are backing us and allowing us to play here.
“We need to rack up the wins and we completely understand that. The next couple of games coming up are going to be important for us to really do that and make Ibrox a fortress for us.”
The Rangers No.1 also stressed the need to treat every fixture with the same importance, not just the headline clashes with Glasgow City, Celtic and Hibs: “It's not just their games that are important, every single game is important. There are tight results with bottom half all the time.
“It's not just the likes of Celtic and Hibs you need to be worried about, it's everyone else in the league. The Hamiltons, the Aberdeens are really competitive teams now. We go into every game with the same intention as to win the game no matter who we're playing because it's a really competitive league and that's what we need to do.”
Looking ahead, Rangers have the chance to respond quickly with a SWPL Cup tie against SWPL 2 side St Johnstone at Ibrox on Sunday before returning to league action against Hibs the following week. City, meanwhile, follow up their midweek trip to the capital with a Scottish Cup tie away to Hamilton Accies.