“The standard the rest of us have to aspire to meet,” James Forrest from The Celtic Blog

James Forrest provided us with this quote for inclusion in this article and we thank him for his kind sentiments.

“For the whole of this season, as my interest in the women’s team has grown, I’ve gotten nearly every single bit of my news from one site; The Celtic Star. Their coverage has been excellent, comprehensive and passionate … and that inspired my immediate interest and now inspires me to want to build on that interest and cover the game in a similar manner to them. From the first game until the last, these guys have not only written about the women’s team but followed it, supported it and promoted it. I hope that in time all of the blogs will do the same,” James Forrest from The Celtic Blog

The Celtic Star played a small role in this welcome news that an influential Celtic outlet is now going to be covering the Celtic FC Women site on an ongoing basis. Recently I was moaning to James Forrest about the Scottish FA, saying that while they didn’t allow The Celtic Star access to the pre-match media conferences for the recent Scottish Cup semi-final match between Celtic and Glasgow City, they had absolutely no problem allowing a theRangers fan media site to broadcast a live podcast from inside the media room at Hampden after Jota had ended their season, outside of their Dead Rubber glory at the weekend.

“Some of us are hopelessly uneducated about the history of the women’s team and are playing catch-up and trying to learn as we go. So bear with us a little bit as we try to do this right. In the end, I want this site to do it and do it well. Some blogs – like The Celtic Star and the Cynic – have been doing this for a while, and they are the standard the rest of us have to aspire to meet,” James Forrest from The Celtic Blog

This conversation led to James Forrest writing about the women’s game and we certainly seemed to have grabbed his attention, as did the impressive number of supporters reading that article!

And no wonder he’s interested, there’s an SFA story, we recently had Fran Alonso assaulted by a coach from theRangers live on television, Sky Sports are getting audiences for their women’s game comparable to anything they get from men’s matches outside of the Glasgow Derbies, there’s the most incredible ‘Helicopter Sunday’ shoot-out this weekend when any one of THREE teams can win the league – by the way of the three Fran Alonso has the lowest budget – so are the other two coaches just lucky?

There’s the women’s league at the first time of asking showing the men how to do a split properly and it’s both much fairer and has produced incredible drama and a truly competitive league with the top six playing each other home and away…

Then’s there are the crowds, a record breaking one of 9553 at Celtic Park last Thursday night but that won’t last very long. For this Sunday’s match against Glasgow City the current Champions theRangers (squad budget of around £2m apparently according to their favourite forum) have taken the decision to move the game from Broadwood in Cumbernauld to Ibrox with admission for their season ticket holders at just £1.

Remember Glasgow City and theRangers are playing for the title and also one of two Champions League spots. Celtic are at home to Hearts…at Airdrie…but surely this is going to get moved to Paradise too? If not theRangers will break our attendance record and significantly improve their title chances but it’s exciting and it’s all to play for.

Chatting through all this this morning James Forrest the Editor and chief content creator on The Celtic Blog was kind enough to provide this quote for this article, which we are delighted to include.

“For the whole of this season, as my interest in the women’s team has grown, I’ve gotten nearly every single bit of my news from one site; The Celtic Star. Their coverage has been excellent, comprehensive and passionate … and that inspired my immediate interest and now inspires me to want to build on that interest and cover the game in a similar manner to them.

“From the first game until the last, these guys have not only written about the women’s team but followed it, supported it and promoted it. I hope that in time all of the blogs will do the same.”

That’s music to our ears because the Women’s game is going nowhere and one thing that this season has demonstrated is that it has the interest of the wider footballing fan-base and with Champions League football just around the corner there is a chance that Fran Alonso, a clever operator in the transfer market, could do very well at that level.

Here’s something to ponder, the Arsenal Women side has annual turn-over of £7m, and that is only going to rise. Celtic can’t miss the boat and that is why The Celtic Star has given the Celtic FC Women’s side equal billing and respect as the men’s team since Fran Alonso was appointed three years ago. Profits from the Women’s side can assist the football club as a whole and the changes of a Celtic side winning a European trophy or at least getting to a final are higher for the women’s team than the men’s.

In that time Fran Alonso has delivered Champions League football for the first time, won the League Cup for the first time in a decade and won the Scottish Cup Final for the first time ever in one of the best Celtic games (for any team) last season, he’s taken us to another Scottish Cup Final against theRangers a week on Sunday and this Sunday can win the SWPL1 for the first time ever.

Comments posted on The Celtic Star have to be approved before appearing and for a long time we’d get loads of comments saying “no-one cares about women’s football”, “ladies football is crap”, “no-one is interested” , who cares” and much worse. That stopped last season perhaps because Fran Alonso’s side won a League Cup and Scottish Cup double or maybe the trolls just got fed up not getting their objectionable opinions published?

As we mentioned yesterday in our match preview ahead of heading to Meadowbank Stadium in Edinburgh for he penultimate game of the season against Hibs, Celtic held a Content Creator event at the game at Celtic Park on Thursday night with the objective of convincing more fan media to get behind the women’s game. Those invited certainly got the VIP treatment and a brilliant match to enjoy as Fran Alonso’s Celtic side really did put on a show in that second half.

We’ll have to wait and see if that happens but James Forrest at The Celtic Blog – who incidentally wasn’t invited to that VIP Celtic event just like The Celtic Star – is the first to show his hand and come of in favour of getting behind The Celtic FC Women side. Hopefully James is the first of many and we’ll collectively be able to help take the support for Fran Alonso’s side to another level.

And start asking questions about the transfer budget available to the manager! Once a Bampot, James….

Supporting and promoting Celtic FC Women is in the long term interest of Celtic Football Club and that’s why we are not threatened by sites like The Celtic Blog getting behind the women’s team but genuinely delighted that James has made this decision and pleased to have played our small part in twisting his arm! Hopefully many other sites and podcasts will take it seriously too, even the Champagne guzzlers.