Rangers test huge for Hamilton as captain admits SWPL 1 side have 'three extra players' factor

Hamilton Accies Women’s captain Hannah Coakley admits Rangers are so strong it’s like they are facing a team with three extra players.

A daunting challenge awaits Accies this weekend as they take on second-placed Rangers, who are one point off top spot with two games in hand.

Accies are bottom of SWPL 1 and earned a point against second-bottom Hearts on Sunday during a 1-1 draw, with Lauren Evans’ first half goal cancelling out Aimee Anderson’s opening goal for the Jambos.

Now they face an Ibrox club who have invested heavily in their women’s team and Coakley says that is ultimately the difference when it comes to facing them.

She said: “We want to be playing Celtic, Rangers and Glasgow City’s. We played Rangers midweek recently and it’s hard as a lot of us are coming from working full-time during the day.

“They are able to rest and they have their dinner made for them. We are eating and coming from work straight to a game. It’s hard for us with the investment at Rangers.

“But we can’t take away what a good team they are. You can see that in their performances. It feels like they have three extra players on the park.”

Accies have an eight-point gap to make up from bottom to ninth-placed Hearts, holding a game in hand after winning one of their 18 league matches.

Head coach Gary Doctor added: “We need to win games to claw it back.

“We need to take more risks, not that I think we were risk-averse earlier this season. Not losing heavily has allowed us to keep chipping away at it.”

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