{"id":131004,"date":"2025-05-25T15:51:10","date_gmt":"2025-05-25T15:51:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/131004\/"},"modified":"2025-05-25T15:51:10","modified_gmt":"2025-05-25T15:51:10","slug":"ni-star-helps-rangers-put-league-disappointment-behind-them-with-comfortable-scottish-cup-success","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/131004\/","title":{"rendered":"NI star helps Rangers put League disappointment behind them with comfortable Scottish Cup success"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"beltel-ebe0ecc6_root beltel-ebe0ecc6_paragraph beltel-91174671_secondary beltel-1d70522a_marginbottom4 beltel-1d70522a_marginleft0 beltel-1d70522a_marginright0 beltel-1d70522a_margintop4\" style=\"color:var(--color-primary-80)\" data-testid=\"title-summary\">Rangers 3 Glasgow City 0\n<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Northern Ireland's Laura Rafferty has won the Scottish Cup with Rangers\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/afc8bbf8-1374-438f-8cd2-6d966fd58f61.jpg\" loading=\"eager\" width=\"100%\" data-testid=\"article-image\"  \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"beltel-ebe0ecc6_root beltel-ebe0ecc6_caption1 beltel-300db776_none beltel-91174671_secondary beltel-66f0fec7_regular beltel-1d70522a_marginbottom0 beltel-1d70522a_marginleft0 beltel-1d70522a_marginright0 beltel-1d70522a_margintop3 beltel-b48c4984_left\" style=\"color:var(--color-grey-60)\">Northern Ireland&#8217;s Laura Rafferty has won the Scottish Cup with Rangers<\/p>\n<p class=\"beltel-ebe0ecc6_root beltel-ebe0ecc6_paragraph beltel-300db776_none beltel-91174671_primary beltel-1d70522a_marginbottom0 beltel-1d70522a_margintop0 beltel-b48c4984_inherit\" style=\"color:var(--color-primary-80)\">Northern Ireland star Laura Rafferty helped Rangers ease their League disappointment with an emphatic Scottish Gas Women&#8217;s Scottish Cup Final win over Glasgow City.<\/p>\n<p class=\"beltel-ebe0ecc6_root beltel-ebe0ecc6_paragraph beltel-300db776_none beltel-91174671_primary beltel-1d70522a_marginbottom5 beltel-1d70522a_margintop0 beltel-b48c4984_inherit\" style=\"color:var(--color-primary-80)\">Jo Potter&#8217;s side lost the SWPL title race to Hibernian with a defeat by Hibs on the final day of the season last week but they showed their resilience at Hampden Park to retain the trophy.<\/p>\n<p class=\"beltel-ebe0ecc6_root beltel-ebe0ecc6_paragraph beltel-300db776_none beltel-91174671_primary beltel-1d70522a_marginbottom5 beltel-1d70522a_margintop0 beltel-b48c4984_inherit\" style=\"color:var(--color-primary-80)\">Mia McAulay opened the scoring after 25 minutes before fellow attacker Kirsty Howat doubled that lead 13 minutes later and then, after Rafferty had been introduced at the break, grabbed her second five minutes after the restart.<\/p>\n<p class=\"beltel-ebe0ecc6_root beltel-ebe0ecc6_paragraph beltel-300db776_none beltel-91174671_primary beltel-1d70522a_marginbottom5 beltel-1d70522a_margintop0 beltel-b48c4984_inherit\" style=\"color:var(--color-primary-80)\">City defender Sam van Diemen was sent off in the 79th minute for denying substitute Camille Lafaix a goalscoring opportunity by hauling her back but the game was gone by then, with the Sky Sports Cup winners assured of a Cup double.<\/p>\n<p class=\"beltel-ebe0ecc6_root beltel-ebe0ecc6_paragraph beltel-300db776_none beltel-91174671_primary beltel-1d70522a_marginbottom5 beltel-1d70522a_margintop0 beltel-b48c4984_inherit\" style=\"color:var(--color-primary-80)\">The woodwork saw plenty of action in the early stages of the game.<\/p>\n<p class=\"beltel-ebe0ecc6_root beltel-ebe0ecc6_paragraph beltel-300db776_none beltel-91174671_primary beltel-1d70522a_marginbottom5 beltel-1d70522a_margintop0 beltel-b48c4984_inherit\" style=\"color:var(--color-primary-80)\">McAulay struck the post in the 12th minute with a drive which beat City goalkeeper Lee Gibson and five minutes later Rangers defender Kathy Hill headed a free-kick on to the bar and over.<\/p>\n<p class=\"beltel-ebe0ecc6_root beltel-ebe0ecc6_paragraph beltel-300db776_none beltel-91174671_primary beltel-1d70522a_marginbottom5 beltel-1d70522a_margintop0 beltel-b48c4984_inherit\" style=\"color:var(--color-primary-80)\">Moments later, at the other end, City&#8217;s Natalia Wrobel crashed a shot off the crossbar from the edge of the box.<\/p>\n<p class=\"beltel-ebe0ecc6_root beltel-ebe0ecc6_paragraph beltel-300db776_none beltel-91174671_primary beltel-1d70522a_marginbottom5 beltel-1d70522a_margintop0 beltel-b48c4984_inherit\" style=\"color:var(--color-primary-80)\">However, when 18-year-old McAulay got another opportunity outside the box on a swift counter, she drilled a shot into the far corner of the net.<\/p>\n<p class=\"beltel-ebe0ecc6_root beltel-ebe0ecc6_paragraph beltel-300db776_none beltel-91174671_primary beltel-1d70522a_marginbottom5 beltel-1d70522a_margintop0 beltel-b48c4984_inherit\" style=\"color:var(--color-primary-80)\">McAulay provided the assist for the second goal, floating a cross into Howat who turned neatly away from Van Diemen before firing low past Gibson, who moments later prevented a third when she blocked a shot from McAulay who had broken free of the City back line.<\/p>\n<p class=\"beltel-ebe0ecc6_root beltel-ebe0ecc6_paragraph beltel-300db776_none beltel-91174671_primary beltel-1d70522a_marginbottom5 beltel-1d70522a_margintop0 beltel-b48c4984_inherit\" style=\"color:var(--color-primary-80)\">It was a healthy interval cushion for Rangers, who lost captain Nicola Docherty to injury just after the first goal.<\/p>\n<p class=\"beltel-ebe0ecc6_root beltel-ebe0ecc6_paragraph beltel-300db776_none beltel-91174671_primary beltel-1d70522a_marginbottom5 beltel-1d70522a_margintop0 beltel-b48c4984_inherit\" style=\"color:var(--color-primary-80)\">City were again caught with a through-ball after 50 minutes which left Chelsea Cornet able to roll the ball across goal for Howat to tap into an empty net from close range.<\/p>\n<p class=\"beltel-ebe0ecc6_root beltel-ebe0ecc6_paragraph beltel-300db776_none beltel-91174671_primary beltel-1d70522a_marginbottom5 beltel-1d70522a_margintop0 beltel-b48c4984_inherit\" style=\"color:var(--color-primary-80)\">In the 70th minute City&#8217;s Nicole Kozlova somehow missed the target with only Gers keeper Jenna Fife to beat while McAulay missed a chance for her second after being set up by Howat.<\/p>\n<p class=\"beltel-ebe0ecc6_root beltel-ebe0ecc6_paragraph beltel-300db776_none beltel-91174671_primary beltel-1d70522a_marginbottom5 beltel-1d70522a_margintop0 beltel-b48c4984_inherit\" style=\"color:var(--color-primary-80)\">Van Diemen&#8217;s dismissal, after referee Dan McFarlane was called by VAR to check his pitchside monitor after initially flashing a yellow, completed a miserable day for City, while 35-year-old striker Jane Ross came on as a late substitute for Rangers in her last game of a stellar career.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Rangers 3 Glasgow City 0 Northern Ireland&#8217;s Laura Rafferty has won the Scottish Cup with Rangers Northern Ireland&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":131005,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5011],"tags":[1144,1946,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-131004","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-northern-ireland","8":"tag-northern-ireland","9":"tag-rangers-fc","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114569274090541722","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131004","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=131004"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131004\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/131005"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=131004"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=131004"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=131004"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}