Aberdeen Women suffered their heaviest-ever defeat in the SWPL as they were beaten 13-0 by Celtic at Excelsior Stadium.
The Dons’ biggest margin of defeat prior to the Celtic clash was a 10-1 loss to Glasgow City in March 2022.
Colette Cavanagh, Murphy Agnew (3), Paula Partido, Natalie Ross (2), Chloe Craig, Amy Gallacher (3), Clare Goldie and Caitlin Hayes were all on the scoresheet for Celtic in the ruthless victory.
Following the result, Aberdeen manager Clint Lancaster struggled to put his thoughts into words, as he said: “I don’t really know what to say if I am being totally honest.
“We didn’t turn up in the slightest, not at all. I don’t know what was wrong with us, but we were way off it and just really, really poor.
“But I come back to the levels and I come back to the squad that I have got. My whole bench is made up of academy (under-18s) players.
“Yes, the performance was poor in the first half. It was shocking, terrible, and nowhere near good enough.
“Celtic did everything we knew they would do, but we were just so far off it. We didn’t get close enough to players.
“I don’t know how we go from winning games 5-2 (against Motherwell) and beating Spartans at home last week to coming down here and losing like that.
“Is it nerves when we have to step up and play these teams? I don’t know what it is.
“We went toe-to-toe with Glasgow City even though we got beat 3-2 and were 1-1 with Rangers for a long spell in that game (finished 5-1), but against Celtic we were just so poor.”
The Dons boss believes the heavy league defeat reflected the different levels of experience between his side and Celtic.
Lancaster added: “I want to emphasise the levels. Celtic have senior internationals across their team – I have youth internationals and all the players on the bench are from the under-18s.
“Three of my players on the bench yesterday played 90 minutes for the under-18s.
“I’ve got a 15-year-old (Phoebe Murray) starting in midfield and another 15-year-old on the bench that I didn’t bring on for her debut because how can I bring her on in that game?
“I’m not sure what we’re meant to do.
“They’re young and I don’t want to get away from them playing the way we want to play and playing out from the back.
“They will make mistakes and I encourage it because that’s how we learn. They won’t learn from lobbing the ball forward all the time.
“I want us to play and play with confidence. I want them to learn and deal with those situations better, but we were just nowhere near good enough at doing that today.”
Celtic punish Aberdeen with ruthless display
It was 1-0 after less than 10 minutes when Partido beat Francesca Ogilvie down the right flank to send an inviting ball into the box.
The ball first landed to Gallacher who scuffed her shot, before it dropped to the feet of Cavanagh and she unleashed a powerful effort beyond goalkeeper Annalisa McCann.
Partido was at the centre of the action for the home side’s second goal only a minute later as she sent another cross into the box from the right which was knocked home by Agnew at the back post.
It should have been 3-0 in the 15th minute, but Scotland international Gallacher was denied by the feet of McCann after being played through for a one-v-one.
But it was soon 3-0 and it was another ball from the right which Agnew met in the air – beating McCann who looked to collect it – and headed home with a glancing effort.
Things went from bad to worse for the Dons as Celtic got their fourth through Partido as she got on the end of Shen Mengyu’s corner, before Ross added a fifth with a close-range header after connecting with a Cavanagh cross from the left.
Aberdeen conceded the sixth just before the first half came to an end when Craig headed home from a corner.
With the ball barely leaving the visitors’ half in the opening 45 minutes, Eva Thomson hit her side’s first half-chance of the match, but she saw her shot from just outside the box blocked.
Celtic soon picked up from where they left off in the first half when Gallacher made it 7-0 five minutes after the restart when she fired into the bottom corner after Dons skipper Hannah Stewart blocked the initial effort with her face.
Aberdeen went close to pulling back a consolation goal as Eilidh Shore looked to catch out a back-pedalling Kelsey Daugherty, but the midfielder’s strike from 40 yards out dropped onto the roof of the net.
The home side extended their advantage to eight as Ross bagged her brace with a superb drive into the bottom corner which left McCann with no chance.
Agnew netted her hat-trick as she made it 9-0 with a smart finish into the bottom corner and Gallacher made it 10-0 with 13 minutes left to play with a tap in from a couple yards out.
Celtic were ruthless and rounded off the emphatic win with three more goals as Goldie netted from close-range, Hayes headed home from a corner and Gallacher slotted home from inside the box and became the second Celtic player to score a hat-trick.
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