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Jens Berthel Askou understands the major disappointment from exiting the Scottish Cup on Wednesday, but thinks there is always an added incentive to try and defeat St Mirren given the Paisley side’s win at Hampden earlier in the season.  

Askou discusses VAR and the decisions from Wednesday night.

Head Coach – Leanne Ross

The league leaders have propelled themselves back into the ascendency of the Scottish Power Women’s Premier League table, with Leanne Ross’ side yet to be defeated domestically, as their current invincible campaign continues.

City were last defeated by three-goals to one after extra-time by European powerhouse, Sporting Lisbon in the Portuguese capital to end their UEFA Europa Cup campaign at the Round of 16 stage.

The Springburn outfit have since earned their place at the National Stadium, Hampden Park after defeating Stenhousemuir 2-0 in the Quarter-Final of the Scottish Cup, teeing up a last-four tie with Celtic.

Team line-up  

Goalkeeper Erin Clachers became a City centurion last weekend, captaining the side for her 100^th appearance with the club, replacing international stalwart, Lee Gibson in the City goal. Gibson will likely return to action this weekend, being named the preferred option between the sticks throughout the majority of City’s SPWPL campaign.

First-team regulars, Haley lauder, Emily Whelan, and Nicole Kozlova may all return to the starting line-up after being rested in the Scottish Cup last weekend.

Former Motherwell midfielder and 2024/25 Women’s Player of the Year, Louisa Boyes could also challenge for a place in the visitors starting XI.

League position

The 16-time champions are currently in pole-position to restore the SPWPL crown from current holders, Hibernian. City have maintained a 12-point advantage over the current champions, and lead closest-rivals, Hearts by three-points.

City also hold the best defensive record in the division, conceding only six-goals across the entirety of the season, whilst preserving an intact record of zero-goals conceded against teams in the bottom-half of the split.

Matchday 18 of the 2025/26 SPWPL campaign awaits the women of steel this weekend, as they contest their final pre-split fixture against league leaders Glasgow City at The Ross Commercial Finance Stadium at K-Park.

Redemption will be the ambition of the women of steel this weekend, who seek to conclude a frustrating run of six consecutive defeats.

Narrow defeats have been the hosts achilles heel throughout the season, with their last four being one or two goal deficits, including two defeats against both Hibernian and Celtic. Striker Carla Boyce remains adamant that the squad are ready for the challenge.

“We recognise that the game at the weekend isn’t going to be easy,” Boyce said.

“We need to have confidence in ourselves and try and get something out the game. To compete with a team like Glasgow City, you have to show bravery both in and out of possession, and we need to show that mentality to help us progress in the spilt.”

The women of steel have had a fortnight break from competitive action, building towards the weekend with additional time on the training pitch. Boyce discussed the positivity amongst the squad.

“Preparations have been good,” Boyce noted.

“Despite being out of the Scottish cup, we have continued to train and have played a friendly match to maintain our fitness, and keep us all ticking over.”

The women of steel sit precariously in eighth in the SPWPL table, level on points with closest-rivals, Aberdeen who are battling to evade the relegation-playoff position below.

“We are really disappointed in our league position,” Boyce added.

“We all know we should have done a lot better in the tighter games. We need to move on and now focus on taking one game at a time to help us finish the highest we can in the league.”

At the second time of asking, Motherwell faced Aberdeen in Round Five of the Scottish Cup, looking to progress to the quarter-final. 

Having got the better of their opponents just three days ago, the Steelmen arrived at Pittodrie on a cold and windy Wednesday night with confidence that they could get the job done again.

Six changes were made to the side that defeated Aberdeen, but sadly, there wasn’t a great opportunity to see how those changes would take effect. After just two minutes, Oscar Priestman was ordered off for an untimely and purely accidental slip that caused Lyall Cameron to crash to the deck just outside the box.

Kevin Nisbet scored from the resulting free kick, and with just four minutes on the clock, the Steelmen would be a man and a goal down. The numbers would be levelled out midway through the first half, however, when Dennis Geiger was also shown a red card for a high tackle on Lukas Fadinger.

The Steelmen stuck in there and started the second-half well in the match. But the game would take another twist in controversial fashion. Liam Gordon fouled Toyosi Olusanya 50 yards from goal, but VAR decided to intervene, and John Beaton showed his third red card of the evening to the Motherwell defender after watching the footage back from an angle in the North Sea.

Graeme Shinnie slotted a second as the nine men of Motherwell tried to remain in the tie. With nine players and the game nearing its conclusion, Motherwell continued to battle, with Longelo, Nicholson, Maswanhise and Slattery all having chances.

Just their fifth defeat of the season in all competitions, Motherwell have 12 matches left in their league campaign remaining as they look to finish what they started in the Premiership.

Our match against Dundee will take place on Saturday 7 March.

Kick off is 3pm at Dens Park.

You can buy tickets for the match by clicking here.

Motherwell continue their William Hill Premiership campaign on Saturday 21 February.

Kick off is 7:30pm at The SMiSA Stadium.

How to follow the game

You can buy tickets online for this match by clicking here.

Tickets for this game are physical so they must be collected at Fir Park or posted out. The last day for postage was the 17^th February.

The Motherwell FC Ticket Office will be closed on Saturday 21 February. Any uncollected tickets will be with our SLO at the away turnstiles.

The match is being shown live on Premier Sports.

Motherwell’s Fortunes

Motherwell suffered their first defeat in all competitions since December on Wednesday night at Pittodrie. In a game littered with controversy, Liam Gordon and Oscar Priestman were both shown red cards, and the Steelmen lost 2-0 in the Scottish Cup tie.

Both players are available for selection against St Mirren, although Lukas Fadinger will serve the second match in his suspension following his sending off against Rangers. Stephen Welsh is available once again, having missed the cup match.

Motherwell got the better of St Mirren last time out at Fir Park. Goals from Tawanda Maswanhise and Elliot Watt earned Jens Berthel Askou’s side a 2-0 win. St Mirren won 4-1 at Hampden when these two sides met in the Premier Sports Cup, with the first game of the season in Paisley ending in a 0-0 draw.

Opposition Report

St Mirren have lost their last two matches in the Premiership on the road to Kilmarnock and Hibernian. Killian Phillips scored a brace in the 4-3 defeat to Kilmarnock two weeks ago to move the midfielder onto seven goals for the season.

In a tightly congested section of the table, Stephen Robinson’s side are tenth in the table. Just eight points separate seventh from 11th in the Premiership table.

Jens Berthel Askou reacts to exiting the Scottish Cup at Pittodrie.

Motherwell were eliminated from the Scottish Cup in the fifth round, following a 2-0 defeat to Aberdeen in a game that will be remembered for controversial red cards. 

Oscar Priestman was shown a straight red after just two minutes, before Kevin Nisbet opened the scoring after three minutes. Dennis Geiger was also ordered off for a high tackle on Lukas Fadinger, before Liam Gordon was sent off for a tackle on the halfway line.

Graeme Shinnie doubled the hosts’ lead after 64 minutes.

There were six changes to the Motherwell side that defeated Aberdeen on Sunday. Fresh off the back of signing his new contract, Matty Connelly replaced Calum Ward between the sticks. Stephen O’Donnell, Liam Gordon, Lukas

Fadinger and Regan Charles-Cook, with Eythor Bjørgolfsson, handed his first Motherwell start up front.

In windy conditions, the game started with 1000 travelling Motherwell fans in fine voice. But the start would be disastrous for the Steelmen.

Oscar Priestman slipped when tracking back and fouled Lyall Cameron as a result. Although there was no intention of fouling the midfielder, John Beaton deemed Priestman as the last man, and he was given his marching orders.

From the resulting free kick, Kevin Nisbet stepped up and curled home from the edge of the box past Connelly. After just three minutes, the Steelmen were a man and a goal down.

Motherwell and Jens Berthel Askou made the relevant changes with the man disadvantage. But Aberdeen were seeing most of the ball, with Nisbet having a shot saved from the right edge of the box after eight minutes.

The hosts were in the groove, and a lovely move forward eventually ended in Connelly making a wonderful save over the bar from Cameron’s strike on 12 minutes, as Motherwell tried to remain in the tie at this early stage.

Manager Askou made no substitutions despite the early setback but was ordering small tactical changes on the field to try and gain some control in proceedings. Cameron sent another shot towards goal in the 20th minute, but Connelly got down comfortably to gather.

But the game was changed yet again on 22 minutes when Dennis Geiger was shown a red card following a high tackle into Lukas Fadinger’s stomach. Beaton originally showed a yellow, but it was upgraded following a VAR review. 10 v 10 after 23 minutes.

Motherwell’s first shot came on the 28th minute. A move, which started in their own six-yard box, was worked to Elijah Just, whose shot was deflected wide for a corner. But the Steelmen were growing into the game.

Tempers began to flare when Shinnie tried to pull O’Donnell down off the ball and when Top Keskinen barged into Charles-Cook needlessly. But space was opening up all over the park, and Motherwell were trying to exploit it as best they could.

Nisbet almost doubled the host’s lead on 44 minutes. Keskinen slipped the ball to the striker with his back to goal; he swivelled and struck with his left foot from six yards out, but Connelly was able to save with his feet.

Half-time arrived with Aberdeen still ahead, but it looked like more goals would be in store during the second-half. The Motherwell manager brought Callum Slattery on in place of Tom Sparrow during the interval.

But all half-time tweaks would need to be re-altered after 48 minutes. Liam Gordon hesitated before playing a ball over the top, and Toyosi Olusanya nipped in. Gordon brought the striker down on the halfway line, but Beaton was ordered by the monitor to overturn his initial yellow card decision.

With nine men, the Steelmen would have a difficult task ahead of them but still stuck in there. Charles-Cook dropped the shoulder and shot over the bar on 56 minutes following a short corner. The nine Steelmen were giving it everything to remain in the Scottish Cup but were exposed should Aberdeen counter.

Elliot Watt and Emmanuel Longelo were introduced at the hour mark, replacing Eythor Bjørgolfsson and Lukas Fadinger. But those substitutes weren’t given much of a chance before the next goal came along. Graeme Shinnie picked up the ball outside the box, shaped the ball onto his left foot before firing into Connelly’s left bottom corner. 2-0 after 64 minutes and an uphill task for Motherwell.

Emmanuel Longelo tested the Aberdeen goalkeeper with a low effort down to his right-hand side, before Ibrahim Said saw his effort gathered by the keeper shortly afterwards as despite the man disadvantage and scoreline, they kept battling in the tie.

Motherwell continued to probe. A quick free kick went Charles-Cook who fired across the face of goal but there were no takers on 72 minutes. Maswanhise burst into life on 74 minutes latching onto a Slattery through ball. The forward got in front of the defender and his strike beat the keeper, but not the left-hand post.

Slattery went close on 87 minutes. He slipped as he curled the ball, searching for the far corner. The ball didn’t come back in quite enough and just went wide. Nicholson then drove forward in the next attack. He shrugged off two defenders but his strike took a nick off the defender and took all the power out the shot as the keeper gathered comfortably.

Nine-man Motherwell couldn’t find a way through as time slipped away and crashed out the Scottish Cup.

Motherwell Subs: Ward, McGhee, Ross, Longelo, Slattery, McAllister, Watt, Nicholson, Said.

Liam Gordon says the squad are confident ahead of their round five match against Aberdeen in the Scottish Cup, and believes that players, staff and fans should all be dreaming when playing in this competition. 

Gordon says the Premier Sports Cup semi-final defeat still hurts and says the players will look to try and get to the latter stages of this competition too.

The Aberdeen ticket office will facilitate a limited number of Motherwell ticket sales tonight at the stadium.

Fans should go to the ticket office, which is located on the corner of Pittodrie Street & Golf Road.

There is a window facing out towards Golf Road, and Aberdeen staff will facilitate from there, which will save Motherwell fans from having to come into the office and queue with everyone else.

Uncollected tickets and reprints will go to the Away Ticketing Pod prior to kick-off tonight, this will be manned by Aberdeen security.

We wish everyone a safe journey to Aberdeen and want to once again thank you for your support.