Last-gasp winner sees "hurtful" defeat for Hibs

Lizzie Arnot’s 85th minute goal was enough for Rangers to defeat Hibs 1-0 at the Meadowbank Stadium.

The hosts were brilliant throughout the game and more than matched the SWPL champions despite their current injury crisis. Hibs also carried a threat of their own and were inches away from taking the lead themselves on numerous occasions. However, a last-gasp winner was enough to undo the hosts fantastic work and inflict a “hurtful” result for manager Dean Gibson.

“I’m really happy with the performance level again,” Gibson told the Edinburgh Evening News. “We are really up against the wall at the moment with the squad size. Credit to the girls putting that amount of work into the game on the back of playing Celtic a week ago, Glasgow City on Wednesday and Rangers again today. We have a very limited squad size and it’s the fact that today we didn’t just sit back and soak up pressure, we had a threat on the pitch as well. We were a threat on set plays and we were going in behind them. We didn’t create a load of chances but we were set up to counter attack and we did that pretty well. It was a brilliant performance and a really hurtful result because of the timing of which we have lost it.”

Brogan Hay was the first player to get sight of goal as her volley flew over the bar. Lia Tweedie was then unlucky not to get her head on Brooke Nunn’s cross after a fantastic delivery. Ellis Notley almost scored directly from a corner late on but Jenna Fife gets a strong hand to the ball to push it away. Up the other end, Rangers quickly produced an opportunity as Kirsty Howat’s shot was saved low by Benni Haaland. The Glaswegians piled on the pressure in the dying minutes as Poppy Lawson brilliantly cleared the ball off the line with a header. Haaland was then called upon again as she made an outstanding stretched save to tip wide Sam Kerr’s shot and keep the two teams level at half time.

Michaela McAlonie made a comeback appearance off the bench late on. Credit: Malcolm Mackenzie

Rangers had a golden chance to take the lead at the start of the second half as Kerr put her free header over the bar. Hibs were inches from going in front again as another cross were centimetres from meeting Tweedie’s head. Midway through the half, Haaland pulled off another magnificent diving save to tip Kirsty Maclean's effort wide. Katie Lockwood had a golden chance to put Hibs in front from a free-kick but her effort just went wide of the post. Hearts were in mouths for the hosts as Rangers hit the post from a corner with 10 minutes to go. But the visitors finally found a way through Hibs resilient defence as Arnot tapped home with only five minutes to go to give the visitors all three points.

“The girls have a lot of belief and frustration in them right now,” Gibson added. “That’s sometimes a dangerous side when you have got belief and you are frustrated. Sometimes you can feel sorry for yourself and then you are looking at others but they are frustrated and when you are frustrated, you are ready to put it right and that’s where we are at right now.”