THE chance to make history is the added incentive for the eight teams contesting this afternoon's Scottish Cup quarter finals. The semis and final will be the first women's club games to be played at Hampden.
While precedent in the competition has been for both semi-finals to be played at the same ground on the same day – last season it was Falkirk Stadium – my understanding is that this, too, will be different next month. The first semi is likely to be played on April 22, with the second the following day. The final is on May 28.
All of this is under the auspices of the Scottish FA, who have replaced the longstanding SWF as the competition organisers. Playing club games at the national stadium completes the circle for the governing body, who infamously banned women and girls from kicking footballs at their members' grounds for some 50 years.
While none of today's games are being televised live – there will again be a highlights package – there are ongoing discussions with broadcasters for the semis. The only obvious area for concern is how many spectators will be in such a cavernous ground for these showpiece games.
Today's quarter finals will see two of the clubs with the biggest supports eliminated from the competition. Holders Celtic travel to Oriam to play Hearts, while Rangers host Hibernian at Broadwood in a repeat of December's Sky Sports Cup final at Tynecastle.
While both Edinburgh clubs will harbour hopes of progressing, Hearts, with home advantage, have perhaps the better chance. They forced Celtic to extra time in last year's semi-finals before going out to a Charlie Wellings double, and were pushing hard for an equaliser when Celtic won 2-1 at Oriam in January's league game.
For all four clubs it is the start of a very tough run of games as the post-split fixtures start next weekend. Almost everything seems to be flowing in Glasgow City's favour at the moment, and they have what should be a much easier game today against the only SWPL 2 side left in the Scottish Cup, Kilmarnock.
The latter's manager, Jim Chapman, has joked that beating City would be a bigger achievement than one almost exactly ten years ago when he was in charge of men's Third Division side Annan Athletic. In his eighth game as manager, and still seeking a first win, he took his side to Ibrox, where they beat Ally McCoist's Rangers 2-1.
Kilmarnock won the Scottish Cup in 2001 and 2002, both times when Chapman was in his first stint at the club. They beat City 5-0 in the second of these finals, with a teenage Jo Love among those picking up a winners' medal.
ONE of the teams involved in today's other quarter final set an unwanted record last Sunday. Glasgow Women have now lost all their opening 22 SWPL games, bookended by a 14-0 loss to Rangers in August and the most recent 11-0 defeat to Glasgow City.
The previous longest losing streak in a Scottish top division was held by Third Lanark. They lost their final 21 games in 1964-65 and were duly relegated, having won just three and drawn one of their 34 in total.
Back in women's football, Kilmarnock finished bottom of the 2011 SWPL table having lost all 20 games in an eleven team league. They did actually win one match, beating second bottom Falkirk 2-0, but the result was reversed to a 3-0 defeat because one of their players was 14 and ineligible because of her age.
Glasgow Women play Motherwell today, and were beaten 2-0 when the sides met last month. Paul Brownlie's team narrowly missed out on a top six place last Sunday despite beating Aberdeen 3-1, so for both quarter finalists the Scottish Cup will be a welcome change.
What has been impressive about Glasgow Women is that despite the unrelenting negative league results, their application and team spirit appear to have remained intact. Manager Andy Gardner confirms this is the case.
“Credit to every one of the girls,” Gardner said. “They turn up for training in their numbers, and they just want to right a few wrongs in the games following the split.
“There's still a fighting chance we could avoid relegation. We would obviously want to have points on the board, but what gives us fire in the belly is that we've been really close against all the sides in the bottom six.
“With the pain we've had this season, what an opportunity the Motherwell game is to go and play at the national stadium.”
