SWPL 2: Team and player of the season 2020-21
Anyone's Game pick their team of the season from the second tier, and also name their player of the campaign
It was the campaign we thought would never start, then would never end. But finally, Aberdeen were crowned SWPL 2 winners and Hamilton Academical edged out Partick Thistle and Dundee United to join them in securing promotion.
But who makes the Anyone’s Game team of the season? Our team give their verdict.
In goal, everyone was adamant Accies’ Lauren Grant deserved the gloves.
Likewise, in defence, Dons pair Kelly Forrest and Loren Campbell, and Hamilton’s Megan Quinn, were also unanimous picks.
The final place was up for debate. Kenny Boag pushed for St Johnstone’s Rihanna Tweedie and also made the case of Partick Thistle’s Cheryl McCulloch, who made a big impact despite only being at the Jags for a few months.
But we couldn’t look past another Partick defender - Clare Docherty.
Germany’s Josephine Giard has just signed a new contract with Hamilton and she’ll be returning to the top flight where she previously was with Celtic, and she was another unanimous choice of the panel. The rest of the midfield brought tears and tantrums as we fought over our favourites.
Kenny and Colin Falconer successfully argued the case for Hamilton’s Amy Anderson.
Partick’s Jade Gallon, Hamilton’s MT Gardiner, Aberdeen’s Eilidh Shore and Kilmarnock’s Abby Robinson were all on our short list.
We also had to have Dons striker Bayley Hutchison, while we needed her team-mate Francesca Ogilvie and Dundee United winger Robyn Smith in there.
A 4-5-3 formation wouldn’t do though, so we settled on 4-3-3 with Giard as a roving number 10 with Anderson and Robinson in the centre.
Player of the season
Francesca Ogilvie may have fallen short of being the Dons top goalscorer, but much of that was due to her unselfish play, something that didn’t go unnoticed by manager Emma Hunter.
“There’s been a lot of talk about Francesca and Bayley competing for top goalscorer but I think Francesca put the ball on a plate for Bayley three times (in the win over Glasgow Women) which shows that we are just a team and at the end of the day as long as we are performing well, we can all have a joke about scoring.”