Europa Cup – first qualifying round, first leg: Glasgow City 3 (Anderson 15, Motlhalo 55, Forrest 60) Athlone Town 0

After enduring a turbulent few days off the pitch, following the resignation of manager Colin Fortune last Saturday, Athlone Town experienced a little bit more on it at the hands of Glasgow City in the first leg of their Europa Cup qualifying tie on Wednesday evening.

A 3-0 defeat leaves them with the mother of all tasks in the return leg on home turf next Wednesday, the prize for the winners a place in the second qualifying round of the inaugural edition of the competition.

Interim coach John Sullivan’s frustration will know no bounds after the game at a rain-drenched Petershill Park, Athlone looking more than comfortable in Glasgow’s company for the bulk of it.

But their failure to deal with Sofia Määttä’s work on the wings proved oh so costly, the Finnish international setting up goals for Amy Anderson, Linda Motlhalo and Lisa Forrest in the 15th, 55th and 60th minutes.

For the first, she skipped past Shauna Brennan on the left, goalkeeper Megan Plaschko failing to cut out her ball across the face of goal, leaving Anderson to tap in to an empty net. The next two were similar, Määttä’s crosses comfortably turned home by Motlhalo and Forrest who were given far too much time and space in the box.

Glasgow certainly aren’t the force they once were, back when they were reaching the Champions League quarter-finals in 2015 and 2020, but with a squad containing Scottish, Irish (Erin McLaughlin, who started in midfield, and Emily Whelan, who came off the bench), Dutch, Finnish, Polish, Slovenian, Ukrainian, South African and Japanese internationals, this was always going to be a big ask for Athlone.

But they put it up to Glasgow, Kelly Brady coming close enough to giving them the lead after 11 minutes when she intercepted a loose back-pass and forced a smart save from Lee Gibson. Roisin Molloy, Brady again and Izzy Groves came nearer still in the second half, but it proved to be a night of no-ending frustration for the Irish champions.

Määttä’s was their chief tormentor, Motlhalo not far behind in those stakes, the protege of Vera Pauw during her time in charge of South Africa and Houston Dash a danger throughout.

A mountain of massive proportions to climb next week, then, the main task to prevent Sofia Määttä from putting the ball in the box.

GLASGOW CITY: Gibson; Evans (Brownlie 85), Golob, Smit, Muir (Warrington 69); McLaughlin (Lockwood 69), Anderson; Määttä (Whelan 85), Motlhalo, Forrest; Harrison (Kozlova, 56).

ATHLONE TOWN: Plaschko, K Brennan, Shine, McNally, S Brennan (Rice 71); Slevin (Groves 79), Waesch; Strickland (O’Connor 71); Molloy, Brady, Gibson.

Referee: Tjasa Misja (Slovenia).