Sydney Cummings: The girls are looking forward to getting back to league action

In partnership with

Celtic F.C.

·7 February 2024

Sydney Cummings: The girls are looking forward to getting back to league action

Victory over Hamilton Accies in the Scottish Cup at the weekend proved to be a satisfying way to return to winning ways for the Celtic FC Women squad.

The 6-0 win handed Elena Sadiku her first victory in charge of the Hoops, with Natalie Ross’ first-half triple marking her 10th goal of the campaign, as well as the first hat-trick of her career.

OneFootball Videos

For Sydney Cummings, it also proved to be a successful afternoon as she marked her full return from injury by making her first start since early November.

The defender played her part in what was a strong performance for the Ghirls at New Douglas Park, helping keep a clean sheet, alongside scoring six goals.

Speaking to Celtic TV ahead of the midweek match up against Motherwell, Cummings reflected on making her full return against Hamilton Accies after helping the Celts get back on track.

She said: “Obviously we wanted to get back to winning ways at the weekend, after coming off the back of two losses.

“So it was nice to get some goals in on Sunday, establish our play on the game and walk away with a place in the next round of the Scottish Cup.

“Initially you have a bit of nerves, and it’s maybe a bit weird to say that because we play, and train every single day.

“But you haven’t been in that kind of environment for a little while. So I think the moment I got that out of my system it was nice.

‘I was just trying to have fun, I think that was really important after such a hard couple of weeks.’

“It’s been a rough transition, a lot of change and I think it was just important. So I think that is what we all tried to do – play with a smile on our faces and score some goals.”

The victory in the Scottish Cup may have been pleasing for a couple of reasons, however, it will quickly be out the mind of Sadiku and her squad, who will be switching their focus back to league action.

The Ghirls will be on their travels this evening (Wednesday) as they take on Motherwell and play out their second away fixture of three over this week.

Although it is a quick turnaround, Cummings believes it is important for the squad to have these games as they continue that adjustment period.

“I’m not looking forward to the cold,” she joked. “8pm kick-off, so it’s going to be very cold! But we are definitely looking forward to the competition.

“We want to get back into league play, and competing. Hopefully, we can just continue on with the winning ways.

‘We are trying to implement the things that we are working on in training, and just trying to remain confident.’

“It’s sometimes difficult to play games in quick succession. You have to manage load, and obviously you don’t have that much training or preparation before the games.

“But I think with what Elena is doing, we are trying to implement the same things for each game.

“It’s just more practice basically. Practicing it, and implementing it each game. So hopefully we will continue on that trajectory.”