After a poor league campaign, Celtic Women ended with a bang by beating Rangers in the Scottish Cup final on Sunday at Hampden.
While Callum McGregor lifted the Scottish Cup with ease after beating Neil Lennon’s Dunfermline Athletic to end their campaign, that wasn’t the case for his counterpart, Kelly Clark.
Her team, after taking a first-half lead through Morgan Cross in a cagey Glasgow derby, were at a disadvantage when Emma Lawton was sent off just before the hour mark.
The Celtic Women showcased their fighting spirit by winning the Scottish Cup 1-0, and Clark proceeded to follow McGregor’s actions of not lifting the trophy in the stands, which once again drew criticism.
Celtic beat Rangers in the Women’s Scottish Cup final!
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Celtic Women’s Scottish Cup trophy lift draws criticism
Usually, the captain would go up first, collect the medal, wait with the trophy and for everybody else to arrive before lifting the trophy in the stands.
When McGregor opted against doing that during Celtic’s win over Dunfermline, it was questioned and criticised by James McFadden.
Well, the Celtic Women’s captain, Clark, went down the same route and found herself on the end of the same type of reaction.
Speaking to BBC Sport, Brian Graham stated in no uncertain terms that he prefers everything the ‘old-fashioned’ way.
“Call me old-fashioned, I like walking those stairs and lifting the trophy up there,” said Graham. “Having said that, congratulations to Celtic.
“Over 90 minutes, they were fantastic. They got the goal and then were resolute and defended well. They scored an excellent goal and defended for their lives, and thoroughly deserve their victory. The disappointment for Rangers is that they did not do enough to equalise.”
Why is the old Scottish Cup trophy lift tradition being broken?
Never mind modern-day squads being larger than ever before, there are now more staff than players across football clubs.
But the reason for McGregor going against the grain during his Scottish Cup trophy lift was seemingly to accommodate everyone in the squad.
At the time, the Daily Record did claim that the Celtic men’s squad simply didn’t have enough room to lift the trophy together in the stands.
You would take an educated guess and state that Clark has done the same thing with her side, so expect this to repeat itself again and again.
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