The women of steel fought full-time Hearts closely, but couldn’t find the deserved breakthrough, as the hosts narrowly earned a two-nil victory at the Oriam on Wednesday evening.
Lizzie Waldie’s deflected strike wrong-footed goalkeeper Emily Mutch for a fortunate opener before a stunning effort from Naomi Powell completed the three points under the floodlights.
Amidst a touchline ban, Head Coach Paul Brownlie was confined to the stands of the Oriam performance Centre, as Assistant Colin Crichton undertook duties in the Motherwell technical area. The women of steel named 10-changes from the side that were defeated by Glasgow City last weekend.. Emily Mutch returned between the sticks, with Shannon Leishman, Jenna Penman, Rachel Todd, Katie Rice, Sophie Black, Louisa Boyes, Lucy Ronald, Mason Clark and Bailley Collins all returning to the starting XI. Midfielder Brodie Greenwood was unable to face her parent club.
Motherwell certainly had the more promising opportunities on goal throughout the entirety of the first-half. Katie Rice’s whipped free-kick from distance swirled invitingly across the face of goal, forcing an impressive save from the Hearts stopper. A drilled corner-kick moments later flashed across the six-yard-box, with defender Jenna Penman agonisingly missing the ball by a few centimetres.
Into the second-half, Sophie Black curled an enticing strike around the far post, as Motherwell continued to force the Hearts backline towards heir own-goal. However, moments later, Waldie’s strike from the edge of the penalty area took a huge deflection off of former Jambo Penman before wrong-footing Mutch in the Motherwell goal.
Motherwell tried to rally a response, but Powell’s exceptional strike from distance sailed into the top-right corner, leaving Motherwell empty-handed un the Scottish capital.
The women of steel will have to regroup before facing Celtic at K-Park on Sunday.