Jo Potter wants Rangers to use league pain as cup inspiration

Jo Potter wants her Rangers Women’s side to take motivation from their crushing last-day league disappointment to finish the season with a historic cup double.

The Light Blues captured the Sky Sports Cup earlier in the campaign but lost out on the Scottish Women’s Premier League title to Celtic last weekend on goal difference, with the Hoops notching a dramatic winner against Hibernian in the last minute of the game.

Potter noted the disappointment which initially engulfed the squad before attention turned to the Scottish Gas Scottish Cup final against Hearts Women at Hampden Park on Sunday, where one of the combatants will win the competition for the first time.

The Gers boss said: “I wanted them to feel that disappointment at the weekend. It was important.

“We spent a couple of hours together after the game on Sunday and as you can imagine, it wasn’t a nice feeling to have.

“But it was important for us to live it, feel it, not want to feel it again and really look forward to Sunday.

“They had a day off on Monday and then we put it to bed. It would have been difficult if we had a game on Wednesday but it is good that we have a cup final to look forward to.

“If that had been a parting note on Sunday, then that would have been tough, because you can’t put anything right again until potentially next season but we get another opportunity on Sunday.

“It is an opportunity for us to get a cup double and that can be a positive end to the season for us.

“We have Champions League football to look forward to which we didn’t have last year, a potential cup double and losing a league title on goal difference, it just shows how close we came to an excellent season.

“But if you don’t win on Sunday it looks very different.”

It is a first appearance in the final for Hearts and boss Eva Olid wants to go the final step and take the trophy back to Edinburgh

The Spaniard said: “It was a massive objective to get to the final but once you are there, of course you want to win.

“We don’t want to just play, we will do everything we can to win the game.

“The mental side is the most important thing because you can prepare for the match but if the players don’t believe then we are not going to get a result. But if we believe, anything can happen.

“It is always difficult against the top three teams but the fact that we have won against them this season adds to that belief.

“The most important thing is to enjoy the game, we don’t have the pressure to win, we have nothing to lose.”