Elgin City women’s football team get ready for Scottish Gas Scottish Cup last 16 trip to St Johnstone after ‘exceptional’ run in competition
There’s been a real buzz around Scottish Cup adventures for Elgin City this season - not just for Allan Hale’s men’s team.
City’s women’s team have emulated the male Black and Whites by reaching the last sixteen of the national competition, and who knows they might even go further.
On Sunday, Elgin make the trip to Perth backed by an army of Moray supporters to take on St Johnstone women for a place in the quarter-finals.
Several tiers of the Scottish women’s game separate the sides, but SWFL North minnows City, who are the lowest-ranked side left in the cup, can give their Premier League 2 opponents a stern test.
Elgin’s manager, former men’s team stalwart and Highland League title winner Michael Morrison knows everything about the big occasions in football, and he is proud of his squad’s efforts.
The team only made their league debut in 2023 and in their second season they have excelled in their league and won four Scottish Cup ties, mainly against higher ranked teams.
“It’s the same as the first team (men’s team) in a sense, this is the one where you want to progress as far as you can to get an opportunity to play teams in higher leagues to test yourself,” Morrison said.
“Eventually you can maybe get the big carrot at the end, like the men's team have had with Aberdeen recently.
“We've done exceptionally well. Just to get to this stage of the competition is a feat in itself.”
In their final league match before Sunday’s crunch cup clash, Elgin won 6-0 at Grampian Ladies to warm up in perfect fashion.
They face a very different challenge at Perth’s Riverside Park against a Saints team that will be strong favourites to progress.
So far Elgin have defeated Glasgow side St Anthony’s 7-2 at home in September, before winning their only previous away tie 6-4 in a thriller at Linlithgow Rose the following month.
Dunipace Ladies from the league above Elgin fell victim to a 4-3 City win in November and the Black and Whites overcame the odds to oust a very good Dunipace Ladies team 1-0 at Borough Briggs in the last round in December.
“We've been lucky in a little bit of a sense because we have had home games, which obviously suits us, against Dunipace and then Dryburgh,” Morrison added.
“But with these being teams one and two leagues above us, it has been a magnificent achievement for the players.”
So how will Morrison ask his ladies to approach Sunday’s toughest test yet?
“We said the same thing at Dryburgh, let's just enjoy the week leading up to the game and make sure we enjoy the game when it comes around.
“But to enjoy the game, we've got to make sure we turn up and give a good account of ourselves.
“We’re the lowest ranked team left in the competition. We're under no illusions about how difficult it's going to be.
“When the draw was made, I think every team looking at the draw would have been hoping for a home tie first and foremost.
“And then I think their second hope would have been to be drawn against Elgin City.”
City have posted some high scoring wins this season but Morrison has worked on cutting down the amount of goals conceded by his team in recent games, a trait that will put them in good stead for Perth.
“We do like to play attacking football, but I think we've got to be realistic about the level of the opponent.
“We will go down there on Sunday and see what we do, maybe expect to try to nullify them a wee bit more than maybe we would be against other teams.
“We have been scoring goals right from the start. And I think at the start of the season, we were conceding too many for my liking, so we've really worked hard with the defensive players and the keeper.
“That's the last four games, two before the Christmas break and the first two back this season, we've managed to keep clean sheets. So, you know, we are progressing in terms of how we want to defend as well.”
Their goalscoring talent is obvious. Summer signing, Norwegian striker Mia Lundberg has struck an impressive 21 goals in just 14 appearances.
She has been well backed by 18 more from Darcy Matheson in just 11 matches played, while manager’s daughter Lily Morrison, the match-winning hero from the last round, has 12 in 12 appearances and Lauren Doherty has also netted into double figures.
