FRIDAY evening was a lot rosier than Friday morning for Glasgow City, who can still qualify for the knock-out stages of the Champions League by beating Gornik Leczna tomorrow.

Without going into the tortuous details, any win other than 1-0 will be enough to take Scott Booth and his players into the last 32 as Group 3 winners. If it is 1-0 and Anderlecht beat FC Martve at the same time – which is a certainty – the Belgians will go through. To add the final twist, Gornik will win the group and therefore qualify if they win or draw against City.

That means Gornik remain favourites to go through. They have made a convincing start, slamming Martve 12-0 and following up with a 1-0 win over Anderlecht. But if they are in “Pole” position, City are happy just to be back on the grid.

Qualification is again in their hands, having lost possession of it when they went down 2-1 to Anderlecht on Tuesday. Nevertheless, having got back into contention for what would be a remarkable eighth successive season of last-32 European competition, the Scottish champions will need to improve on their shot-shy performance against Anderlecht if they are to beat Gornik.

It has again been evident that their squad lacks the depth and quality of previous seasons. Equally, sometimes you don’t appreciate the full value of a player until she isn’t available, and City have missed the injured Hayley Lauder. The Scotland player is swift of foot and thought, and chips in with goals.

New-signing Lidija Kulis is industrious and a good crosser of the ball with both feet, but hasn’t, as yet, shown she possesses Lauder’s flair. Another summer arrival, Lara Ivanusa, had a really good game against Celtic last Sunday but hasn’t reached the same level since.

Both were taken off at half time against Martve in what head coach Booth said was a pre-planned move to give them extra recovery time. In retrospect, asking for a postponement of the Celtic game might have been the correct decision, even if there was an obvious value in playing a competitive game before the group started.

The scriptwriters’ scenario tomorrow would be for Leanne Ross, who has struck the goalkeeper’s right-hand post with her last two European penalties, to score the goal that secures qualification from the spot in time added on.

YET again the SSE Scottish Women's Cup has been devalued by a club withdrawing from a tie. This time it is Dundee United, who announced late on Friday that they wouldn't be playing today's third-round game against holders Hibernian because of circumstances outwith their control.

Ironically, United were one of three clubs – the others being Aberdeen and Celtic – to be given byes in the second round because their opponents, Blackburn United, also pulled out of the competition. That's four clubs in two rounds which is unacceptable, albeit one of the earlier withdrawals was due to tragic circumstances which were not made clear at the time.

Scottish Women's Football reacted on Friday evening, issuing a statement that Dundee United's fate will be decided by their board, with a fine and expulsion from next season's Scottish Cup the most likely outcome. SWF will also be looking at increasing the available sanctions as from next year's competition.

Dundee United will not clarify the position beyond “lack of player availability”. However, sources say the club's head coach and some of the players are on holiday. If true it is odd, given that the season has just resumed following a lengthy break.

“It's massively disappointing,” said Hibs head coach Grant Scott. “I broke the news to the players on Friday evening before training and their heads went down. They want to play on a Sunday.

“For Dundee United to do this to the competition and the opponent is bad enough – but to do it with that late timing is awful.”