Hibernian vs Spartans Matchday Programme

For full details, including sponsorship and squad lists, please visit the full programme accessed at the bottom of this page.

Leah Eddie and Joelle Murray get back to training.

Head Coach, Dean Gibson

NOTES FROM THE BOSS

DEAN GIBSON

After his maiden campaign was cut-short at the beginning of March, the head coach is eager to get back underway.

There is just a buzz about the squad but we know Spartans are going to have the same.

Fom what I’ve seen this preseason we are in a much better position than we were at the start of the year. Back in February, we were still a team that was trying to gel and come together but now we are in a much stronger position.

We know where we are trying to get to, the players know the style of play that we are asking and we are a much different team than what we were in February. I’m fully confident that we can go and take three points from the opening game, anything less isn’t acceptable. We will also take that into the rest of the games this season.

Preseason has served its purpose well. I felt sorry for the players back in January because we had just come in and it was harder to organise things.

We want to start off with three points, wins breed confidence and confidence breeds success. We need to build momentum into the key stages of the season but we need to get off to a good start and that starts today.

However, this time everything from the organisation right through to their performance has been brilliant giving us a platform to go and prepare for the season.

When we came back from lockdown and it was non-contact, we called that pre-preseason. It was about getting the legs moving but also gave us the chance to see how fit the team was. The players were still in good spirits but it wasn’t normal football.

The minute we were allowed contact again, the buzz about the group has been brilliant. They’d really looked after themselves throughout lockdown. They came back and made our jobs a lot easier. They were all really fit, none came back with any concerns.

We told the girls that we can trust them to maintain that themselves now and we can use the Tuesday, Thursday, Friday sessions to really focus on team aspects. That’s been a massive bonus because you can see the difference in us from our first preseason game against Glasgow Women to the final game against Hamilton was night and day.

The standard and their understanding of what we want went up a few levels. Over the course of preseason it’s been good, the girls are a credit to themselves, they’ve made our lives easy by keeping themselves in such good condition.

Club captain, Joelle Murray

THE CHANGING ROOM with JOELLE MURRAY

The lack of football won’t have as impacted as many as it has the club captain as she looks forward to another exciting season.

Preseason has been great, everyone returned from lockdown in high spirits and the willingness to work hard and learn has been evident.

It’s been a long time coming but after a few friendlies we are very much looking forward to the return of competitive games. The league will be more competitive this season with clubs resourcing their Women’s teams more than ever before. It’s exciting for not only Hibernian Women but also for the league in general.

The team’s first 11-a-side game during preseason was an 11v11 bounce game, after a planned friendly against Newcastle fell through. This gave Dean and the rest of the coaches a chance to see how we had adapted to the style they’d been trying to implement and provided aspects to work on in the upcoming friendly fixtures.

First up was Glasgow Women, with Hibs winning the game 9-0. We played really well. The bounce game the week before gave us a real idea on what we needed to work on. Already within a week there was a massive improvement around the team’s understanding. We took confidence from that.

Next up came a home tie versus St. Johnstone, followed by a trip north to face Aberdeen. Over these two games, Hibs scored a further 10 goals (6-0 and 4-0, respectively).

The final preseason game put the SWPL Cup holders up against one of the SBS SWPL 2 title favourites, Hamilton. This was the best performance of all the preseason fixtures, despite a tighter scoreline, with the game finishing 6-4 to Hibs.

For 80 minutes it was the best we’d played in preseason. Everything just seemed to click for us. Understanding our style, the pace we were moving at, defensively when Hamilton had the ball everything clicked.

Sunday can’t come soon enough, we appreciate and respect Spartans strengths, however will try and identify weaknesses we can exploit. It’s always a close, fiercely competed encounter and I’m sure this one will be no different.

Debbi McCulloch's side have been without competitive football since the beginning of the year.

Craig Doyle

OPPOSITION FOCUS - SPARTANS FC

We take a brief look into our oppnents for today, who were also the last side we came up against in competitive football.

Spartans enjoyed a decent campaign in 2019, finishing 5th in the SBS SWPL1, making it to the third-round of the SSE Scottish Cup and reaching the semi-finals of the SWPL Cup. Like ourselves, Spartans have been without competitive football since the beginning of the year. With football gradually returning over the summer and preseason games being introduced, Debbi McCulloch’s team have had some promising performances. Their most recent friendly saw the Edinburgh side host Rangers at Ainslie Park, with the visitors winning 3-1.

Spartans' Robyn McCafferty challenges for the ball.

Craig Doyle

LAST MEETING

Hibernian 1-0 Spartans

Rachael Boyle celebrates after scoring vs Spartans.

Craig Doyle

Before football was put on hold, the Hibees’ one and only competitive game was against today’s opponents in what was the 2020 season opener. It was a tense affair, with neither side giving up many chances. However, in the dying moments of the match, Rachael Boyle met a Carla Boyce cut-back and fired into the back of the net, giving Hibs a winning start to a season we’ll never know the conclusion to.

NEXT FIXTURE

MOTHERWELL VS HIBERNIAN

SWPL 1, SUNDAY, 1 NOVEMBER 2020

NEXT HOME FIXTURE

HIBERNIAN VS RANGERS

SWPL 1, SUNDAY, 8 NOVEMBER 2020

For full details, including sponsorship and squad lists, please visit the full programme.