Hearts Women were defeated 3-2 by Celtic at the Excelsior Stadium on Wednesday night.
Eva Olid made five changes from the side that faced Hibernian at the weekend. In came Jenna Penman, Georgia Hunter, Cailin Michie, Sade Adamolekun and Danni Findlay.
Following the weekend defeat to Hibs, it was hard to know what to expect after that disappointment, however in a frantic first half, they took the lead inside four minutes.
Adamolekun, who had struck the post with what looked like an attempted cross, found space in midfield and laid the ball off to the onrushing Emma Brownlie. The full back delivered a wicked low cross for Findlay who had the simple task of tapping the ball home from close range.
The Jamaican was involved again two minutes later when teeing up Katie Lockwood and although her effort was deflected behind, the resulting corner from the Hearts number 10 found Carly Girasoli, who powered a header into the top corner to stun Celtic.
The home side have scored goals for fun in the SWPL this season and they halved the deficit just two minutes later. Caitlin Hayes remains a threat from set plays but identifying the threat and preventing it are two different things, and she headed home on nine minutes as the crazy beginning to this match continued.
Following the fast start, the game finally started to settle down into a pattern and although the home side were dominating possession, Hearts were well-drilled and were limiting the free-scoring Celtic to very few opportunities.
The Jambos would’ve been desperate to keep their lead until half-time, but Celtic did double their lead as a neat through ball found Partido, who slipped the ball under Parker-Smith to restore parity shortly before the interval.
Six minutes after the break, the home side completed the comeback. A cross from the right was headed home by Shen Menglu.
The remainder of the second half passed with little in the way of chances at either end and although Hearts remained in the game they struggled to create any clear-cut opportunities.
Hearts were reduced to ten players, three minutes from time when Katie Lockwood was shown a second yellow card, as the home side saw the remainder of the game out to take all three points.
Celtic: Daugherty, Craig, Smith, Mengyu, Cavanagh, Agnew, Clark, Hayes, Partido-Duran, Burchill, Menglu
Subs: Logan, Barclais, Ross, Loferski, Goldie, Sharkey, Timlin, McAneny, Addi
Hearts: Parker-Smith, Penman , Brownlie, Hunter, Grant, Lockwood, Adamolekun, Girasoli, McGovern, Findlay, Michie
Subs: Rodgers, Morgan, Rennie, Timms, Anderson, Waldie, Davies, Cowan, J. Husband
