Six of the best: International contingent underlines incredible progress at Hearts Women

Six players from the Jam Tarts have been included in 20-strong squad: Aimee Anderson, Amelie Birse, Tegan Browning, Shona Cowan, Eilidh Davies and Celtic loanee Maria McAneny. Hearts have one of the youngsest squads in the SWPL 1 this campaign and these prodigies are all regulars in the first-team.

"There's so many players my age who hardly get any minutes, whereas Eva picks me in some capacity almost every game,” said Birse, the 17-year-old from Boroughmuir High School who is the club’s top goalscorer so far this campaign. “It's a massive credit to Hearts and tells you everything you need to know about what they're doing here with the young players and giving them opportunities.

"We're doing so well at developing young players. There's so many of us going to Wales who are at the club, which is amazing. It's a big step up to go with Scotland, but Eva's brought the standard up at Hearts so much so it's not like it's a polar opposite. IIt's a massive credit to Hearts that they apply the same standard as Scotland do.”

Hearts toiled through the 2020/21 campaign following their promotion to the SWPL 1, finishing bottom of the table. It wasn’t much of a surprise. Hearts had invested in getting the women’s team into the top flight but a lot of that funding was then slashed when the Covid-19 pandemic meant the Tynecastle side had to cut their cloth. Previous boss Kevin Murphy left, as did a lot of senior players, while first-team coach Andy Kirk was moved into taking over a team largely made up of teenagers. They still make up a bulk of the squad this campaign but they’re a year older and a year wiser. They took their lumps last season and had no choice to contiually pick themselves up and keep going.

"For me it was a massive