Hearts Women got back to winning ways on Sunday with a convincing 3-0 victory over Partick Thistle at Kirkintilloch.
Eva Olid made two changes from last weekend’s defeat to Glasgow City as Georgia Timms and Jackie Richards replaced Lauren Wade and Joely Andrews.
The Jambos had switched to a 3-5-2 for the trip west and it showed in the early stages, as Hearts looked a little unnerved, surviving an early scare when Tiree Burchill flashed an effort across goal on the 7th minute.
Hearts slowly settled into their rhythm however, and they almost opened the scoring on 19 minutes when Sade Adamolekun’s corner was met by Jackie Richards, but former Hearts keeper Jenni Currie produced a world class save to claw her header away from underneath the crossbar.
Ten minutes later, Hearts opened the scoring, arguably against the run of play. It was tenacious play from Lizzie Waldie down the left, she didn’t give up as the ball appeared to be heading out and produced a brilliant delivery for Hutchison, who opened up her body to side-foot home past Currie.
The home side had threatened from corners in the opening half hour, but it proved their undoing as Lisa Robertson’s deep corner was met by Eilidh Shore, who was unmarked at the back post to double Hearts’ lead.
Despite not being at their fluent best, Hearts could easily have added to their lead before the interval. Richards charged down the left and thundered an effort off the crossbar, before Currie again produced a top drawer save to deny Robertson’s low strike and Waldie’s header from the resulting corner.
Half-time: Partick Thistle 0-2 Hearts
The cliche says that 2-0 leads can be fragile ones, but Hearts wrapped up the three points on the hour mark and after Timms had an initial shot blocked, she got her head up and did well to dig out a deep cross to the back post where Richards was waiting to power a header home off the underside of the crossbar.
Hearts were in complete control following that third goal and they limited Thistle to virtually nothing in the second 45 and almost added the icing on the cake in the final moments as Lauren Wade rattled the crossbar from distance, but Hearts had to settle for three.
Partick Thistle: Currie, Slater, Falconer ©, Henderson, Boyce, Bulloch, Robinson, Gibb, Cowan, Burchill, Sinclair
Subs: McCulloch, Adams, McAllister, Ferguson, Gray, Longcake
Hearts: Parker-Smith, Brownlie © (Broadrick, 85), Robertson, Forsyth (Jardine, 67), Shore, Timms, Waldie, Adamolekun (Andrews, 46), Hutchison (Wade, 75), E. Husband, Richards (Ilijoski, 75)
Subs: Johnstone, Ilijoski, Morgan, Wade, Jardine, Greenwood, Andrews, Broadrick
