Emma Thomson, a student from Strathaven Academy, defeated competitors from Aberdeen and Celtic to win the prize.
Hamilton Acquires Emma Thomson, a custodian for women’s teams, is jubilant after becoming the youngest player to win player of the month in the premier division since the SWPL’s founding.
The 16-year-old student at Strathaven Academy had an amazing February, and she was recognised for her achievements with a trophy.
Thomson faced 16 shots and made four crucial one-on-one saves to help Hamilton win both of their derby meetings last month—a 2-1 victory over Motherwell and a 1-1 draw with Spartans.
To win the prize, she defeated rivals Natasha Flint of Celtic, Eilidh Shore of Aberdeen, and Ava Easdon of Partick.
“She is the youngest player to have won the award and you very rarely see goalkeepers win at as well, so that just shows you how important she was for us over February,” Accies manager Robert Watson, who is proud of her accomplishment, said.
It also emphasises how we, as a team, are providing young players with opportunities. We are a terrific place for young players who wish to break into the football world.
“We trust the players, and we know they will have good games and poor ones.
“We put our trust in Emma throughout February, and we are thrilled that she has been recognised with this award, which we believe she deserves.”We are thrilled for Emma because it has been a while since an Accies player has won—I believe Amy Anderson was the previous one a few years ago.
Thomson has even more good news: she has been called up to the Scotland U17 team, who will head to Poland for a Euro U17 qualification competition the following week.
Watson, nevertheless, maintains that he will not hold his players accountable for the way they lost to Montrose, their relegation opponents, last week, even though they gave up seven goals in a 32-minute second-half stretch.
Prior to the league split in two weeks, Watson’s team suffered a humiliating 7-0 loss on the road against Montrose Ladies, which dropped them back to the bottom of the SWPL1 standings on goal differential behind Dundee United.
However, after achieving some incredible outcomes in February—a 2-1 derby win against Motherwell at home and a 1-1 draw against Spartans away—Watson maintains that the results are anomalous and won’t call his players out.
“That was a shock,” he remarked. The game was so evenly matched at halftime that I doubt anyone on the field could have predicted how it would end.
However, the second half of the game simply got away from us, and Montrose was having one of those days where they were hitting the back of the net with every opportunity they got. We must improve our defences.
“The scoreline may be a little strange, but we didn’t play well enough in the second half to win the game.
