Scottish Women's Cup: Falkirk stopper Rachel Pirie earns plaudits for her performance in Celtic defeat

The Bairns hosted the Scottish Women’s Cup holders in the fourth round of this year’s competition on Sunday afternoon, with the SWPL1 outfit winning 9-0 over the SWF League One side.

Despite the scoreline, Tully was pleased with his player's efforts against the full-time Hoops.

"The girls worked ever so hard and they put in a performance to be proud of even though it ended up the way it did,” he said. “Losing 9-0 doesn’t look good but actually they have beaten Hibs (who are in the same league) 9-0 this season, and they have dished out a few hammering over the past few years, so we really did do okay.

"The difference in level of player at our level compared to the top teams in the country is so vast that bigger scorelines are pretty regular, and at a much higher amount than Sunday’s result.

"What pleased me too was that in the changing room after the match, the girls didn’t have their heads down, which was great because they should take positives from going out there and going toe-to-toe with a top team.

"They all loved the experience and I am sure it will have given the younger girls a real insight into the levels they need to reach if they want to make it in the game. If they have aspirations of playing at the full-time level then they probably realised a lot after playing for 90 minutes against a team like Celtic.

"When you see them play in person you really understand just how far ahead they are and the high levels of fitness and technical ability they have.”

On his star shot-stopper Pirie, he added: “In the lower leagues that we are in just now, I don’t think many of the bigger clubs come down to watch players regularly which is a shame for Rachel because she is levels above us.

“To play Celtic on a big stage will have saw people watching us who don’t normally and they would have seen that she is different class. Genuinely, the truth is that she is a lot better than Falkirk and this level of football.

"She is a top goalkeeper and I think teams will be sniffing about her now because of her genuine talent.”