A frustrated Scott Booth shared his views at full-time following a hard night at New Douglas Park for his Aberdeen Women side at the hands of Celtic.

“I think the first half, again, just got away from us. We’re playing against a really good side. Celtic were excellent tonight. Excellent. They moved the ball well. They were constantly a threat. They were quicker, stronger, more physical, but also more technical than us. And you have to sometimes concede that. There’s no point in getting away from that at all. But, again, we’ve lost goals in quick succession, which kills you in terms of continuity, and trying to get into the game and be part of the game. That’s not possible when you do that—when you concede like we did.

“And then at halftime, we’ve talked to the players about how to deal with certain situations. And to be fair, we took that on board, on the main, but by then, again, the game’s gone. We’re going to have to find, against the top teams, a way to stay in the game. And that’s not giving away goals in quick succession. So there was that element to it.

“We’ve obviously lost four of our goals from corners, one from a penalty. And we know how much of a threat Celtic are from corners. So we talked before the game about not giving corners away, and we gave a lot of corners away. And we don’t deal with them when they come in the box. So there are some fundamental basics that we need to do better at.

“If we had a good performance here tonight, we could probably just stick with that and keep it positive going into the game against Hibs. But I think we also have to have a bit of a reality check and realize that unless we show the players where we’re going wrong and how to change that, then we’re not doing our jobs. You’re not having a go at individual players, but what we’re doing is making sure the players are learning from the mistakes, and we’re not just burying our heads in the sand and moving on to the next game.

“I’s been tough. You’ve got a three-game week. You’ve got three trips down to the central belt. You’ve got players that have got shifts and whatnot, and all sorts of work-related issues to cope with, as well as the travel and the actual quality of the opposition that you’re facing. So it was never going to be an easy week. We knew that. It is important that we look back over the two games now—Glasgow City and Celtic—and we try and help the players understand where we can improve. And if we can do that, and if we can improve some players by going over the individual errors we’ve made, then hopefully they can bring that into the game against Hibs, and we go in stronger.

“Sunday is a cup semi-final. Ultimately, if you can stay in the game, if we can get that bit right, then you just never know. You can find yourself in a cup final. But this is why we need to on Friday go over the mistakes that we’re making and try and alleviate some of those issues that we’ve got. And if we can do that, that means we’re going to go into the game against Hibs stronger.

“Megan has picked up an issue. We need to assess her and see how she’ll be for Sunday. I thought Annalisa did really well when she had to come into the game. It’s the second time that Annalisa has come on in a game, and she’s done well. I think we’re pleased that she was able to do that because it’s not an easy thing to come into a game like that, where you’re under a lot of pressure and immediately deliver, and she stood up well.

“It’s quite obvious that as a group, we need to strengthen. It’s not even up for question. We can see that we need to get better. We need good players to come in to help the players that are already here. We need to improve the squad and be stronger and better in pretty much every department.