SWPL 1 Preview
We were in attendance at Scottish Power HQ to chat with players from every team in the SWPL ahead of the season kicking off. A big season ahead, this is a glimpse into what we might witness.
Here we go again, a new season dawns and infinite possibilities await. Will Glasgow City get their revenge led by the return of Lisa Evans? Will Elena Sadiku continue to spoil Jo Potter’s fun? Can the Edinburgh clubs break the top 3? Will Queen’s Park and Montrose continue to be the hipsters’ pick?
The next ten months of action will answer all. We were at Scottish Power HQ to hear from a player from every team in the SWPL to get some insight into what to expect in the season ahead.
Last season’s action was the second in a row culminating in a last minute title winner; we saw two new finalists, more investment than ever before, and over two million tuning into television broadcasts.
This season is setting up to be even more dramatic as Aberdeen hire a Champions League winner, Hearts sign the league’s top scorer, Glasgow City bring a legend home, and Dundee United sign players to part-time deals for the first time. And they’re just the headlines!
Celtic
Last season’s final position: 1st
Last season’s Champions are raring to go again after a successful pre-season saw them add some incredible talent and win games against some strong opposition. Natalie Ross was on hand to tell us who she was most excited to be playing alongside this season.
I’m really excited to play with Kit Loferski, obviously she had her wee injury issues last season but she’s been looking really sharp in pre-season and is fantastic when she’s in full flow.
We know what to expect with the champions. They want to win, again, while playing in Sadiku’s possession style system. So, we asked Ross for her SWPL hot take (we had just spoken to Rangers’ Jane Ross before this, you’ll see why that’s important later).
We’re going to win the Champions League… and the treble, unbeaten!
Motherwell
Last season’s final position: 7th
Motherwell have seen a summer of change in their ranks with large turnover in the squad as they look to push on and into that top six wonderland. Captain, Gill Inglis, gave us the inside track on who she thinks will stand out.
Rachel Todd. I think she's got an absolute wand of a left foot so I’m really excited to play with her this season.
With so much change, and a team who have proven to be fluid tactically, we wanted to find out what we should be looking out for this season.
You can expect a team full of energy, passionate, determined, hopefully scores a lot of goal and picks up lots of points!
Rangers
Last season’s final position: 2nd
Runners up last season, but still a double in hand, has Rangers raring to go in 2024/25. With experienced SWPL star Jane Ross in attendance for the Gers at Scottish Power HQ, we wanted to know what opposition player she was looking forward to playing against.
I've got to say Celtic, playing in an old firm derby is always exciting as a player. Those are the games I look forward to.
Rangers go into every season expecting to win titles, and after coming so close last year it’ll be an even stronger desire this year. Therefore we decided to forgo the ‘what can we expect’ question to get Ross to give us her hottest take. In retrospect it was perhaps unwise (or very wise if it adds to the drama) to ask her this in front of Natalie Ross.
Um… Rangers to win the treble? Yeah, Rangers to win the treble [glance over at Natalie Ross]. Unbeaten.
Aberdeen
Last season’s final position: 8th
Clinton Lancaster departed to move back closer to home (via a short stint coaching at a resort in Greece, nice for some eh?) and has been replaced by Champions League winning manager Colin Bell. Hannah Innes was on hand to tell us what we should expect from the Dons this season.
We'll be a really positive team, really attacking. Going forward we've got a lot of attacking threat so we're going to try and be as positive as we can.
They’ve recruited mostly from a pool of former players returning, so fans will likely be well acquainted with the squad going into this year. We asked Innes who she was excited to see on the Balmoral pitch, and she was as democratic as we have come to expect in our half decade of attending these events.
I'm looking forward to playing with everyone, we're a really close knit team so everyone really!
Glasgow City
Last season’s final position: 3rd
Glasgow City were disappointed with how last season panned out, they are looking for revenge this year and the return of Lisa Evans will be a large part of that. With over 100 Scotland caps to her name, multiple trophies around Europe, and significant UWCL experience we wanted to get her hot take ahead of this season.
Sofia Määttä is going to have an unbelievable season, she's just signed and been amazing in pre-season. She's absolutely rapid and I think she'll take to the SWPL really quickly.
Back in the SWPL, back at Glasgow City, but a lot has changed since she left in 2012. We asked her if there were any budding partnerships we should look out for.
Hayley Lauder, she's obviously been my national teammate for a while but we've never actually played for the same club team! It'll be really good to line up alongside her at club level.
Montrose
Last season’s final position: 9th
Last season Montrose thrived in defying expectations as they stayed up with ease, rocking up to the challenge of the SWPL with a swagger. This year is complicated by the threat of three automatic relegation places but they’ll have belief in themselves to prove everyone wrong, again. Jade McLaren told us what we could expect from their second season of top flight football.
We're aiming to be pushing as high up the table as possible, hopefully towards 5th or 6th. Improve on last year and get a few more goals.
The ‘vibes player of the season’ for 23/24 has shown an ability to shine in the big moments, so we wanted to know what game she was looking forward to most (the answer won’t shock anyone).
Dundee United is always a good battle, usually a tight game with lots of goals too. Hopefully we have a similar record as we did last year!
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Hearts
Last season’s final position: 4th
Hearts have improved year on year under Eva Olid (wait, that’s how we introduced them last year…). A record points total, and a first cup final, earned them even more plaudits last season. This year they are going into things with more expectations, more desire, and more experience than ever before. Georgia Hunter told us what to expect this year.
Obviously, there's quite a few new players and they've all been great to watch in pre-season. We’re looking really good, a bit refreshed, we’ll obviously be attacking and trying to play on the front foot as we have before.
With the centre back currently rehabbing an ACL injury suffered last season - things are looking good for her to return towards the end of this season, touch wood - we asked her which of her teammates she was excited to watch this season.
Eilidh Shore. She always gives 100% to the team and I think we’re really lucky to have added her to the squad.
Spartans
Last season’s final position: 10th
Spartans had a difficult time last season as they looked to build on an impressive 22/23 post-split run. With legendary manager Debbi McCulloch moving on to become CEO of the Community Foundation, former Spartans men’s player Jack Beesley has stepped in overseeing a bit of a bounce in form and a lot of squad changes. Captain Robyn McCafferty was on hand to tell us who to look out for amongst the new signings.
Erin Rennie has been amazing in pre-season so I'll say her. She's scored a few worldies as well which she can hopefully take into the season.
Unfortunately, we had some technical difficulties during the media event which means most of the audio is broken (pre-season rust clearly, we’ll get another friendly booked in ASAP). That does mean that McCafferty’s hot take has been lost so you’ll have to imagine something in its place.
Hibernian
Last season’s final position: 5th
Hibs are on a mission under Grant Scott to return to the trophy laden days of the 2010s. With a summer that saw a number of high profile names join the squad we asked Ellis Notley what to look out for.
Expect us to be good hopefully [laughs]… hopefully we’re challenging the top 3, we're looking for consistency every week and to improve on last season.
With so many exciting additions and returns to the squad, as well as an already impressive group at the club, we were keen to hear who Notley was excited to line up alongside.
Rachael Boyle, she's obviously been out a while so I'm really excited to have her back!
Dundee United
Last season’s final position: 11th
Abbie Cusack was in attendance for last season’s play off survivors. They are another side that saw a change in management over the course of last season. A first pre-season under Suzy Shepherd and a move to part-time contracts as they look to avoid the drop this year.
I think you can expect that we’ll win a lot more games this season, and play better!
We also wanted to know which of her teammates she was excited to have alongside her this year.
I’m excited to play with Summer Christie, I really like playing with her and I think we play well together.
Partick Thistle
Last season’s final position: 6th
Partick Thistle reached their first cup final last season with the SWPL Cup at Tynecastle, they followed that up with a second consecutive top 6 finish while revolutionising their style of play to become more fluid in attack. Cara Henderson was in attendance to tell us how they are approaching this season
We obviously want to pick up as many points as we can and push the teams above us into 4th, 5th, place. I think we've got a really good chance of doing that this year.
With a number of very exciting new signings to join her in attack, and a pre-season that saw her score eight goals, you’d have expected that she was looking forward to playing with them. But, it is a defender that she chose to highlight when given the chance.
We’ve got a lot of really exciting attacking players, but I’m really excited to play with Georgia [Gray] who’s signed from Rangers. She’s an absolute unit and will hopefully add a lot defensively.
Queen’s Park
Last season’s final position: 1st (SWPL 2)
Queen’s Park are the top division’s newest side after an unbelievable season last season saw them stroll to promotion. Craig Joyce’s squad will be pushing to make that status stick. Ellie Kane told us what SWPL fans can expect from them.
We’re a team that looks to play football, we take risks and try to get the rewards of that. I think we'll be exciting to watch.
With the defender-turned-midfielder-turned-goalscoring machine returning to the top flight as one of her side’s star players we wanted to know who she was looking forward to playing against this season.
Caitlin Hayes, definitely. It’ll obviously be a hard challenge but she’s a great player and I’d love to test myself against her.
Our Predictions
As always, we’re putting our predictions out into the world (which has literally never gone well). With three relegation spots on the line this season in SWPL 1, and the previously mentioned strengthening across the league, it has been harder than ever to split teams.
If you’re a player reading this and we’ve predicted your team to do worse than you’re aiming for, prove us wrong and laugh at us when the season ends. These are our initial thoughts based on last season’s position, recruitment, and pre-season results (last season we got 45% correct, so we’re more than likely wrong for your team).
The How’s Your Touch podcast will be making its (triumphant) return after our summer break! We’ve taken on board all your feedback and will be back better than ever next Thursday, keep your eyes peeled on whatever platform you listen on.