Jo Potter credits her Rangers team for bouncing back strongly after league agony

Jo Potter praised her Rangers side for getting over league disappointment to retain the Scottish Gas Women’s Scottish Cup with a convincing 3-0 win over Glasgow City.

The Light Blues lost the SWPL title race to Hibernian with a 1-0 defeat by Hibs on the final day of the season last week and they were also deprived of a European place by being leapfrogged by City.

However, there was redemption in the Hampden Park final through an opener from Mia McAulay and a double from fellow attacker Kirsty Howat, with City defender Sam Van Diemen sent off in the 79th minute for denying a goalscoring opportunity.

After winning the Sky Sports Cup earlier in the season, Rangers completed the cup double and Potter said: “I thought we dominated the game. I thought we dominated possession.

“I thought we dominated as a performance and made it pretty easy for us on the sideline, for once. So it was deserved today.

“I’m really, really pleased for the girls that we could turn up after the disappointment of last week and get another trophy. It really means a lot.”

Potter admits the optics of the season has changed by winning two trophies.

She said: “Yeah, and we needed the win. If we don’t win that game, it looks very different to the position that we’re sat in now. And that should be the same for everybody. When you don’t win a trophy, it doesn’t feel nice.

“We always feel the extra pressure being at Rangers. We take away two trophies a season, and everybody expects us to get three.

“We’ve been really close to that for two seasons now.

“Yes, it doesn’t feel great, but we can’t forget, winning trophies is what it’s about, and we’ve a cup double again.

“I’ve won four trophies here in the last two seasons, which is a big, big achievement.

“Yes, it’s not the one that we wanted as well on top of it, but we’ve got to celebrate these moments.”

Glasgow City’s defeat meant no trophies for a second successive season and boss Leanne Ross could not hide her frustration and disappointment.

She said: “It was tough. Unfortunately, we didn’t show up today in terms of the way that we wanted to play, the way that we have played all season, I didn’t see that from my team at all today.

“So that’s probably the overriding factor for me in terms of we didn’t deserve to win the game.

“We’ve only got ourselves to blame in terms of how we approached that game today. I was actually lost for words in terms of what we actually produced today.

“We never passed the ball. But again, that goes back to playing a team against Rangers that are able to go and press you high up the pitch, and I don’t feel like we won any duels at all today, either.

“We were outfought all over the pitch, and that’s the biggest disappointment for me, because as I said, I didn’t see it coming in terms of the way that we’ve been playing recently.”