Kevin McGreskin has called for his Forfar Farmington side to match their midweek showing against Rangers when they travel to SWPL 1 title challengers Celtic.
Three late goals from Rangers put a gloss on a 4-0 scoreline, but McGreskin was left delighted with his players’ efforts.
And if they can put in a similar performance at K Park then they can give Fran Alonso’s Celtic a run for their money in the live BBC Sport Scotland game.
“I thought we played well,” said McGreskin, whose side are seventh in the table.
“Rangers didn’t have their first shot on target until they scored in the 36th minute. We did alright in the second half; it’s two set-pieces - credit to the players who’ve scored but could we have defended them better? And then the last goal is the last kick of the game really where we’ve had an unfortunate bounce of the ball, but she [Lizzie Arnot] is a great player, she’s lashed onto it and curled in a great effort.
“Other than that I thought we competed well, we matched them as much as we could, we posed them problems, we frustrated them, and I was proud of the players and I think the players themselves have got to be proud of their performance despite the result.
“Yes it was a defeat, no goals, but that performance was a good one.”
Celtic go into Sunday’s game under huge pressure, knowing any slip up could not only cost them their league title dreams but also open the door for Rangers to overtake them in the battle for the two Champions League spots.
While McGreskin hopes his side can exploit that, he expects Celtic to be well prepared.
He said: “Even top athletes can have moments where high pressure can get to them, but they [Celtic] have worked hard all season to get themselves into this kind of situation where potentially it goes down to the last game of the season, so they will be trying to do everything they can to make sure that happens.
“Our job is to go out and try and play as equally as well, if not better, as we did against Rangers. If we manage to keep ourselves in the game you never know what’s going to happen.
“All I hope is as when the players walk off the pitch they can feel proud of themselves because I think they were able to do that on Wednesday.”
Forfar Farmington: Kevin McGreskin wants performance to be proud of against Celtic