Match Preview

MATCH PREVIEW: Hearts (H)

Sunday 31st March, 2024 at 8:00am

This Sunday 31st March, PTWFC take on Hearts in a SWPL match at Petershill Park in a 12:10 kickoff.

Having put in a valiant effort in our Sky Sports league cup final, it’s back to league action as we look to get our first points of the split on the board

ℹ️ Fixture Information

📍Petershill Park
🕐Sunday 21st March 2024 12:10pm
🎟️ £7 / £5
🆓 Kids Go FREE!
📺 BBC Alba
💻Updates on Twitter
💻️Highlights and reaction post match

🆚 Our Opponents: Hearts

Hearts have had a good season so far as they sit 4th in the table with 42 points, 4 more than Thistle in 6th. Eva Olid will be hoping to repeat her fortune at Petershill Park having got victory over the Jags in the Scottish Cup at the start of the month thanks to a late winner from Lizzy Waldie.

Hearts’ squad has a lot of talented individuals and it can be often difficult to predict what squad they’ll play on the day. The likes of Emma Brownlie and Ciara Grant have gained their plaudits this season, the later of whom made a number of fantastic set piece deliveries in our last meeting and got the assist for the Waldie winner. Another star for the Jambos is Katie Lockwood, a player who’s scored twice against Thistle at Petershill Park in the league this season so will look to continue her red hot form against the red and yellow.

Our previous fixtures against Hearts are always a close matchup with a lot of feisty challenges. We look forward to welcoming our opponents from the capital in the hopes of another tough matchup.

📈Thistle so far

We made the trip to Tynecastle as the underdogs with that word Brian Graham loves: Belief. It was always going to be a difficult game with Jo Potter’s side in red hot form having suffered defeat only once this season.

The Jags were also without a number of players for a multitude of reasons. Aimee Anderson and Carla Boyce both started against Hibs the previous week but were cup tied heading into this game having featured for Hearts and Motherwell respectively in the cup in prior rounds. Jenna Ferguson also put in a good performance against Hibs but was on loan from Rangers so was ineligible, much like goalkeeper Megan Cunningham.

Thistle started off the game strong, with the best moment of the opening minutes coming after Imogen Longcake capitalised off a Kathy Hill mistake only for her shot to be cleared off the line.

Rangers would take the lead against the run of play after a long ball to teenage talent Mia McAuley allowed the holders to go 1-0 up.

The lead wouldn’t last long as Rachel Donaldson does what she does best and scored a screamer to give Thistle the equaliser in a sensational moment for the Jags support who went electric. No matter what would happen for the rest of the match, we have that moment in our history forever.

Rangers would ultimately come out 4-1 winners thanks to further goals from Rachel Rowe, Rio Hardy and Olivia McGlauchlin but the Jags never gave up. Our players still closed down every tackle, attempted to create chances and our 17 year old goalkeeper Ava Easdon still made fantastic saves in the ending stages stopping the scoreline from getting higher.

All from PTW thank the fans for making Tynecastle Red and Yellow last weekend. The atmosphere didn’t stop from the opening minute to the final whistle. For that, we thank you for being Part Of This.

This week we return home to Petershill Park and we would love to see as many of you as possible as we return to league action.

🗞 Team News

A couple of players miss this fixture due to loan agreements. This means that Aimee Anderson and Shona Cowan miss out against their parent club.

Leah Robinson returned to the bench for the cup final and should be included in the squad again for this league fixture

Cheryl McCulloch also made a special appearance on the bench on Sunday and was able to take part in the pre match warm up as she continues her ACL rehabilitation but will be in the BBC Alba commentry booth for this one.

A few knocks to be assessed by the physio ahead of the game against Hearts but all signs seem positive at the moment.

With that being said, it will be up to the gaffer and the rest of the management team to field their best possible side heading into this fixture with the chance to close the point deficit.