Lily Morrison (14) hits hat-trick as Elgin City Ladies win maiden friendly 4-3 against Buckie Ladies
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A HAT-TRICK struck by 14-year-old Lily Morrison saw Elgin City Ladies come from behind three times to secure the most dramatic of 4-3 wins in their maiden match.
City Ladies – who will be managed by Lily's father and former Highland League and Elgin player Mo Morrison – formed earlier this year.
The success over Buckie Ladies at Portgordon's Gordon Park pleased Morrison, and he admitted that his daughter's performance was impressive.
"It was Buckie's first game for a while and our very first, but we started very well," he said. "We competed well from the word go, got the ball down and played.
"We have had a large number of girls attending training sessions over the last couple of weeks and the standard is really quite high – even at this early stage.
"I try not to let Lily being my daughter get in the way – but I can't help but feel pride. I'm her biggest critic, even after the game the conversation was about what she can do better.
"She had a really good game but the plan is to keep her feet on the ground and not let her get too carried away."
Lily, who plays with Moray Girls, will be unable to play for Elgin City Ladies in the league due to her age. Players must be at least 15, and she doesn't turn 15 until later in the summer.
She was only drafted onto the bench for Sunday's win over Buckie Ladies to help with numbers – and only got on the park to replace an injured striker after five minutes.
However, Lily managed to drag Elgin back into the game twice, before netting the winning goal five minutes from time to seal a come-from-behind success for her side.
Lily won't be the only youngster making the step up from Moray Girls, which serves youngsters until they are 16, to Elgin City Ladies, Morrison explained. There is now a pathway to get girls right the way through into adult football.
"Until Elgin City came about, girls had to go further afield to find games of football," he said.
"Moray Girls have done a great job for many years and a large number of girls are playing football through them.
"However, it's only up to under 16s – so Elgin City's connection with them allows girls to continue their football locally after that age bracket."
Elgin City Ladies will go into the Biffa SWF North Region League, which is part of the pyramid system, meaning there is the possibility of promotion.
The League is set to start in August, with teams like East Fife, Huntly and Inverurie Locos all having sides in the division.
As manager, Mo Morrison is keen to see his team do well and progress through the league set-up.
"It's a good set up, but anybody that knows me knows I'll be looking for success from the word go, he said.
"We want to compete and be as successful as we can be and the goal is to progress up the leagues."
Keiran Carty, Elgin City's general manager, added: ‘It’s great to have our women’s team up and running, it’s something we have been planning for a while now.
"Training sessions have a core group of 30 Ladies, which is growing every week.
"I have to say a big thanks to everyone at Moray Girls as they have helped massively in getting this project up and running.
"Also thanks to our manager Mo Morrison who has been 100 per cent committed from the beginning, putting in a lot of time to make this work.
"We are very excited to see how this develops over the coming years."
