Kate Cooper believes St Mirren Women’s mentality has changed dramatically after seeing her side take the game to league leaders FC Edinburgh in the capital.
Despite going into last weekend’s clash at Meadowbank as underdogs against the title favourites, the Buddies battled hard and only found themselves 1-0 down at half-time after conceding a penalty.
The Paisley side pushed on in the second half but were unable to recover, with the hosts capitalising once more from a defensive mistake to seal a 2-0 win.
Having suffered a painful 14-1 defeat just last season to the same opposition, Cooper is adamant her side showed how much they’ve progressed in the space of just a year.
And she’s hoping her message that every player in the squad has a big part to play continues to be picked up as they look to continue to progress on the park.
Cooper said: “We lost 2-0 but the scoreline didn’t reflect the game as a whole. It was a very good performance from us. We were very competitive and we took the game to them.
“We created a lot of chances, had one shot cleared off the line and we pushed them all the way.
“It was one of our sorest ever defeats to FC Edinburgh last season. We couldn’t even compete with them at that point, but this shows how much we’re developing.
“It almost didn’t feel like a loss walking off the pitch because we’d done so much of what we asked and planned. We just needed to be a bit more clinical on the day.
“We need everyone to do their bit and for us the squad is the most important thing going forward.
“We’re trying to change the language about the squad so people who aren’t in the starting XI don’t think they’re somehow failing or not important.
“We’re going to change that mindset and for it’s about having impact players, not subs.
“Substitutes can change the game when they come on and when I look around now I see a very strong bench with players who can make a big impact when we need them.”
The Buddies head into an exciting Scottish Women’s Cup third-round clash with SWF Championship side Rossvale this weekend.
Taking on the team a division above them at Mossedge on Sunday afternoon, Cooper is confident her side can rise to the challenge with another strong performance.
She said: “We know categorically that Rossvale will be a huge challenge for us.
“But we also know that you don’t get better as a team unless you play better teams.
“Our players want to go and test themselves against the best teams and that is why we’re progressing all the time.
“We’re looking forward to it and I’m confident we’ll be able to put in another performance to be proud of, whatever the result.”
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