Hibs Ladies denied game at Easter Road due to SWPL mistake

Hibs allow their Ladies team one fixture a season at Easter Road.

In the original fixture list sent out to the eight SWPL 1 clubs at the beginning of the year, Chris Roberts’ side were down to play champions Glasgow City at Airdrie’s Excelsior Stadium tomorrow night.

However, due to the participation of the Scotland Under-19 side in the European Championship qualifiers last month, a revised set of fixtures had been issued at the beginning of July with Hibs now pencilled in to play Celtic at home.

Glasgow City – who feared a fixture pile-up – subsequently managed to overturn that decision but, due to an admin error by the SWPL, the original fixture was reinstated without Hibs being informed. That decision prompted an appeal from Hibs yesterday morning.

The Scottish and League Cup holders won their appeal meaning tomorrow’s proposed league clash was cancelled and the Capital side’s next match will be Sunday’s SSE Scottish Cup quarter-final clash with Glasgow Girls.

“On the revised set of fixtures sent out in July we were down to play Celtic on September 6 whereas the original fixture list was meant to be Glasgow City,” manager Chris Roberts explained.

“It turns out that City had got in contact with the league and had managed to change the fixture back without us being informed. So we still thought we were playing Celtic and as we couldn’t get use of our home pitch of Ainslie Park that night, Hibs were good enough to grant us Easter Road which would have been another great experience.

“What’s the point in having revised fixtures if you can just phone up and flip it over again? They are called revised fixtures for a reason. We’re extremely disappointed the fixtures weren’t adhered to. Now we’re having to rearrange the game for later on in the year and we’re also missing out on a game at Easter Road which I’m not sure we’ll get back.

“They have cited an admin error for not letting us know the game had been changed but what we would like to know is why it had been changed in the first place.”

An SFA spokesman said: “The SFA accepts responsibility for the situation caused by an unfortunate administrative error. We have apologised to the clubs involved and have offered compensation for any costs incurred due to this error.

“In addition, we will be reviewing our internal procedures in an attempt to ensure that situations such as this do not occur again.”

On a more positive note, Hibs eased through to the Scottish Cup quarter-finals after a 5-0 win over Celtic at Ainslie Park on Sunday. Captain Joelle Murray and striker Abi Harrison were both on target twice with Lisa Robertson also getting her name on the scoresheet.

Elsewhere, Spartans Women are up to third in SWPL 1 as they edged out hosts Aberdeen 2-1 in the Granite City and, in SWPL 2, Edinburgh University Hutchison Vale were impressive 3-1 winners at Buchan Ladies while Hearts lost to Jeanfield Swifts by the same scoreline.

On a more positive note, Hibs eased through to the Scottish Cup quarter-finals after a 5-0 win over Celtic at Ainslie Park on Sunday. Captain Joelle Murray and striker Abi Harrison were both on target twice with Lisa Robertson also getting her name on the scoresheet.

Elsewhere, Spartans Women are up to third in SWPL 1 as they edged out hosts Aberdeen 2-1 in the Granite City and, in SWPL 2, Edinburgh University Hutchison Vale were impressive 3-1 winners at Buchan Ladies while Hearts lost to Jeanfield Swifts by the same scoreline.