Celtic suffer penalty heartache in shock defeat but Rangers, Glasgow City and Hibs progress to final four

Spartans Robyn McCafferty would score the decisive penalty that fired her side into the Sky Sports SWPL semi-final (Photo by Ross MacDonald / SNS Group)

The Sky Sports Scottish Women’s Premier League Cup (SWPL Cup) will have a new name engraved on it this season after holders Celtic suffered a shock penalty defeat to Spartans.

Defeat will be a bitter pill to swallow for Fran Alonso’s side with his side leading the cup tie up until the 92nd minute despite being down to 10 players for more than half of the game. For Debbi McCulloch’s Spartans side though, there will be cause for much celebration after a dogged performance in Airdrie.

They’ll be joined in the last four by Rangers, Glasgow City and Hibs after the trio avoided potential banana skins of their own to progress to the semi-finals of the competition.

An early goal from free scoring Clarissa Larisey looked like it would send in-form Celtic onto a routine win, however, they were dealt a huge blow when last season’s young player of the year Jacynta was shown a red card just before half time for dissent.

Alonso’s side would continue to press despite the loss of the midfielder and almost double their lead early in the second half through Larisey, though an excellent block from Simone McMahon would keep her from doing so.

Last minute leveller

Spartans would turn up the heat on the hour mark though with a succession of corners that forced the home side into some resolute defending.

The away side would eventually find a way through though and grabbed a deserved leveller just as the full time whistle was approaching.

With the game ticking into the 93rd minute of normal time, former Rangers youth star Hannah Jordan would seek out Louise Mason in the box and the defender would send home a breathtaking injury time leveller to force the game into extra time.

Celtic would reassert some dominance in extra time but could not find a way through with Spartans stopper Rachel Harrison – and her post – in superb form for the visitors.

And it proved to be Spartans day as both Lisa Robertson and Tegan Bowie missed their decisive spot kicks which allowed Spartans’ Robyn McCafferty to blast her team through to the semi-finals.

Despite the defeat, Hoops boss Alonso refused to be to hard on his players, saying: "They deserved to win and fought very hard, even with ten players, but we didn't win so we have to congratulate the opponent and wish them well in the next round”.

The remaining ties saw dominant wins for three of last season’s top four with Glasgow City the big winners of the day as they demolished struggle Glasgow Women 9-0 at New Tinto Park.

City, Rangers and Hibs go into semi-final

A Jenna Clark hat trick, two goals each from Lauren Davidson and Sarah Gibb plus strikes from Emily Whelan and Sophia Martin sealed a routine win for Eileen Gleeson's side.

Hibernian would also cruise through to the semis thanks to an 8-0 win over second tier side Kilmarnock thanks to a brace each from Rosie Livingstone and Nor Mustafa plus Kirsty Morrison, Crystal Thomas, Krystyna Freda and Siobhan Hunter strikes.

Malky Thomson’s Rangers would enjoy a routine 5-0 win over Motherwell in the other quarter final tie thanks to braces from Kirsty Howat and Lisa Martinez after Emma Watson had grabbed the games opening goal.

The draw for the semi-finals will take place live on Sky Sports at 2:15pm tomorrow (October 25).