Fern Newbigging can take great belief from winning finish, says St Johnstone WFC head coach Grant Scott

St Johnstone WFC head coach Grant Scott hopes Fern Newbigging will take great belief from her match-winning finish on Sunday.

The striker was handed a Scottish Women’s Premier League 2 start against Glasgow Women and netted the opener with a clinical strike from inside of the box.

Neat 15th minute work from Niamh Irvine, Hannah Colyer and Morgan Steedman had created the opportunity.

Newbigging’s contribution proved to be the only goal of the contest in a 1-0 triumph and rewarded Saints with a very impressive three points.

Scott was delighted for Newbigging and is now backing her to kick on.

“When I first came in, I noticed in the first couple of training sessions that this kid has something to offer,” Scott told the PA.

“She has an ongoing calf issue which we need to manage, a bit of tightness.

“We’re trying to raise the level of her training to get as close to a match level as we can.

“She is completing full training sessions and is getting belief and confidence. She has been training well.

“So it’s been picking our moment to give her a start and we threw her in on Sunday.

“And now she has got the winner for us. Hopefully Sunday has given her the belief. Technically, Fern is a very good footballer.”

Scott hailed his team’s quick start at McDiarmid Park and the resoluteness shown to come away with a hard-earned clean sheet.

“In the early games, when I arrived, we had been really competitive physically and in the tackle,” he said. “We felt that had been missing in our last game.

“We asked them to step that up because Glasgow are a good side. There were lots of parts that we asked them to do better.

“They definitely brought them into the game and it was absolutely first class. The result was massively important for us - a