Boroughmuir Thistle boss Suzy Shepherd pinpoints how her free-scoring team can improve as league leaders Gartcairn come calling

Boroughmuir Thistle are second-top scorers in SWPL2, but manager Suzy Shepherd wants her free-scoring team to be even more ruthless in front of goal to start winning games again.

It’s been a mixed start to the season for the Edinburgh team, who face a tough test on Wednesday against top-of-the-table Gartcairn in a rearranged fixture which has been switched to Meggetland (kick-off, 7.30pm). Boroughmuir sit fifth in the table and are without a win in their last four games in all competitions. But they are also the second-top scorers in the league with 14 goals from their six games so far.

Shepherd, who came close to steering Boroughmuir up the top flight last season, is not satisfied with that and believes her side can improve in front of goal. “We have always been a team, even before even before this season, who can create a number of chances,” she told the Edinburgh Evening News. “I’d like us to take more of our chances. We are scoring quite a few, but we are also missing quite a few.

“The frustrating thing on the back of scoring all the goals is that we are also conceding quite a few. It is something we are working on. It’s just inconsistency and some individual errors that are costing us at the moment. We are quite an attack-minded team, so we need to do that transition from attack to defence a little bit quicker and take more responsibility.”

Boroughmuir Thistle boss Suzy Shepherd wants her team to be more ruthless in attack and stop leaking goals on the counter-attack. Picture: Craig Doyle

Boroughmuir have already faced high-flying Gartcairn this season, losing 3-1 in the SWPL Cup, so they go into this match well prepared. “That cup game was a game of two halves,” Shepherd recalled. “We dominated possession in the first half, probably played some of our best football this season. Again, we created so many chances, but we never killed the game off when we had the opportunity.

“Second half Gartcairn changed their game-plan slightly. It was a very physical back-to-front game. They created the better chances and scored from three set pieces, which was disappointing from our perspective. We know a little bit more about them now than we did then, so we are well prepared and hoping to take the three points.”

Although Boroughmuir return to their traditional Meggetland home for this one game, Shepherd has confirmed it is merely down to a double booking. Her team will continue to play at the revamped Meadowbank Stadium for the rest of the season.

She explained: “There wasn’t a fixture pencilled in for this date when we went over our games at the start of the season. This was a rearranged fixture. Unfortunately, I think the Edinburgh City men had already booked the pitch for training. It was just a case that it was [Meadowbank] unavailable at the last minute, so we are returning to our old pitch, which really isn’t an issue for us as we were there for several years.

“We have got a lot of good memories from Meggetland. We used to train there and play our games there, so it’s been a big part of the club’s history and hopefully we can put in a good performance and get a good result.”