Parrish bags first goal as Thistle beat Rossvale

Boroughmuir Thistle made it back-to-back victories over Rossvale Women with a 2-0 away victory on Sunday afternoon!

Youngster Leni Parrish opened the scoring for the away side in what was her first ever senior goal after signing in the summer.

Purple Pathway graduate Cara Borthwick then scored what turned out to be the winner shortly before half time as Thistle ran out comfortable winners in Kirkintilloch.

Thistle now sit in 4th place with six points from their opening four games and will look to climb the table after getting back to winning ways in SWPL 2.

Off the back of last weekend’s Sky Sports Cup First Round tie against the same opposition, Boroughmuir travelled to the Kirkintilloch Community Sports Centre looking to make it two-from-two against Rossvale.

Following the 4-1 victory at Meadowbank, Head Coach Andy Enwood spoke of his desire for further improvements from the squad and was pleased with Thistle’s showing on Sunday following a good week of training.

Boroughmuir got off to a fast start, with Maria Novoa-Torrente testing the Rossvale goalkeeper inside two minutes and Ria McCafferty clipping the crossbar from a free kick.

The home side just couldn’t quite hold onto the ball for any prolonged period of time and found themselves a goal down on 20 minutes when Parrish bent an absolute screamer into the far top corner from a difficult angle following a short corner routine.

Thistle continued to dominate possession, with Borthwick’s header testing the goalkeeper shortly before she doubled Thistle’s lead. Holly Aitchison whipped in an inviting cross and Borthwick was in the right place to glance the ball beyond Sarah Rhind.

A commanding lead at half-time was nothing less than Thistle deserved, and they continued in similar chance-creating vein in the second period.

Fiona Gibson did well to turn inside the box but could only find the side netting with her effort shortly before Emily Arthur - who was making her first start of the new campaign - stung the Rossvale ‘keeper’s palms with a shot from 12 yards.

In one of Rossvale’s few attacking plays, Emily Shanks picked up the ball after Thistle sloppily lost possession in their defensive half, but her heavy touch meant it rolled harmlessly through to Rachel Harrison in the Boroughmuir goal.

A quickfire double of long-range efforts around the 75th minute mark saw McCafferty’s strike well saved by Rhind who reset herself after an awkward bounce, and Cailin Michie rattle the crossbar with a thunderous hit.

Louise Mason was next to try her luck and she successfully completed Boroughmuir’s hat-trick of crossbar strikes with an effort from just outside the box in the fourth minute of added time.

So a comfortable 2-0 victory for Boroughmuir on the road that could have easily been more, but a solid defensive display to notch our second clean sheet of the season is equally pleasing.

Up next, we face a trip to Rugby Park to take on Kilmarnock on Sunday afternoon with the game kicking off at 3pm.

Boroughmuir Thistle: Harrison, Sheehan, Arthur, Mason (C), Michie, Novoa-Torrente (Brady 46’), Gibson, McCafferty, Borthwick (Simmons 63’), Aitchison (Gallagher 76’), Parrish (Forsyth 63’ (Hinchcliffe 88’))

Subs: Angelini, Gallagher, Armstrong, Hinchcliffe, Simmons, Forsyth, Forbes, Brady, Moore

Rossvale: Rhind, McGarvey (O’Toole 83’), Jackson (C), Robertson, Cullie (Martin 80’), Coleman, Whiteford (Crean 72’), Allan (Crooks 72’), Fargie, Foulds (Sloey 80’), Shanks

Subs: Martin, O’Toole, Sloey, Gibney, Crooks, McGurk, Crean

Referee: Mark Daly

Post-match reaction