Hibs Ladies turn their focus to claiming a route back into Europe

Grant Scott’s side touched back down in Edinburgh on Thursday morning following the previous night’s 5-1 Champions League last-32 second-leg defeat by Slavia Prague in the Czech Capital.

The Hibees exited the competition 9-2 on aggregate but Scott is now calling on his players to ensure they wrap up second spot in SWPL 1 and the possibility of another route into Europe next season.

Glasgow City are on the verge of clinching their 13th successive league title but Hibs face a battle to finish runners-up with Celtic level on points, although their rivals have played a game more.

Ahead of this weekend’s trip to Ravenscraig, Scott said: “Our main focus now is domestically as our European journey is over. We have to put ourselves in a position, coefficient allowing, that we’re in a spot to get another shot at it next year. We’re a hungry group and we want more and there are girls in the squad who have experienced Champions League football for the first time. But there’s big games to come, points to play for so we’ve got to make sure we’re straight back at it tomorrow.

“I was pretty devastated with the result over in Prague as a lot of their opportunities came from what we’d spoken to the players about. Having said that, over the two legs, I don’t think the scoreline is a fair reflection of how the two matches panned out. They maybe stepped up again in the last 15 minutes out there but we were chasing it at that point.

“But there’s still lots of positives to take. I thought we handled ourselves really well and played some terrific football in spells. We’ve created multiple opportunities over the two legs against a top-ranked side so the players deserve enormous credit.”

Elsewhere, Spartans host Celtic at Ainslie Park and in SWPL 2, league leaders Hearts travel to Dundee United and bottom club Hutchison Vale welcome Partick Thistle to Saughton Enclosure.