This season, all roads have led to Hampden. Yet, this has not always been the case.
Of the nine record-breaking Scottish Cups we have lifted, eight have taken place at different stadiums. Fittingly, our tenth triumph could take place at Scotland’s national stadium if we overcome Rangers in this weekend’s final.
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One thing has remained a constant and ever-present thread throughout our cup victories, though: the people. And some of those who were with us then are still vital to what we do now.
The most successful team in the history of the women’s competition, our first taste of Scottish Cup success was in 2003/04, less than six years after our club was founded by Laura Montgomery and Carol-Anne Stewart.
Of that squad, more than half pictured were from our original Class of 98, including our then-captain Montgomery, now our CEO, who stands furthest to the right in the back row.
She led the team to a 3-0 win over Queen’s Park at Almondvale Stadium, securing a first major honour for the club. And Montgomery did it in style, too, a section of her hair dyed in the club’s famous orange with a few of her teammates convinced to also follow suit.
There was no question of the fire that had been ignited at the club. They had been given a taste of what it was to win, and that would not relent.
Another Scottish Cup followed in 2005/06 — a dominant 5-1 win over Aberdeen at McDiarmid Park, with a hat-trick from Player of the Match Suzanne Grant. If the first triumph proved City could win, the second established that winning was now the standard.
Three years later, City made another statement. A 5-0 dismantling of Rangers in 2008/09 marked the beginning of what went on to be a golden era. Jane Brown was on the scoresheet, while Leanne Ross and Suzanne Lappin both netted braces — the first of many in a remarkable domestic treble.
Ross and Lappin, recently inducted club Hall of Famers, would go on to score a combined 495 goals in City colours. Today, it’s Ross who stands on the touchline as our head coach — already seven Scottish Cup titles to her name, and perhaps an eighth, her first at the helm, on the horizon.
Once again, Montgomery was at the forefront of our success. Lifting the trophy like she had done five years prior.
That connection between past and present runs deep. In the 2011 final at Toryglen, goals from Christie Murray and Lisa Evans sealed a 3-0 win over Hibernian. It was Evans’ second Scottish Cup success before a move to Germany beckoned — and now, in her second spell at the club, she’s poised for another.
Across every one of our Scottish Cup-winning squads between 2003/04 and 2019, at least one familiar face remains.
In 2012, three who are still with the club today - Jo Love, Leanne Crichton and Ross - started the final, while goalkeeper Lee Gibson was on the bench. A 1-0 win over Forfar Farmington secured a first domestic treble since 2009.
That treble would be the first of four in a row. Between 2012 and 2015, City scored ten goals across four finals and conceded none, from Excelsior to Broadwood to Ainslie Park, asserting dominance in every corner the cup took us.
Among those ten goals, two standout braces came in 2014 as Fiona Brown and Love both struck twice in a 5-0 win over Spartans.
Eleven years on, Brown prepares to bow out after this weekend’s final at Hampden, while Love - now club captain - will be there once again, ready to play her part at the national stadium.
That period of dominance culminated in 2015 with a 3-0 win over Hibernian — a match remembered for Clare Shine’s clinical hat-trick in tough conditions, battling the wind and the rain in the capital. It was a fitting finale to four seasons of total control.
Four years later, we met Hibs once again. But on this occasion at Tynecastle, it was anything but straightforward.
A dramatic 4-3 win saw goals from Eilish McSorley and Crichton, while Shine scored twice to help get us over the line in one of the hardest-fought finals of them all. To this day, it remains a standout moment for everyone who played a part in that contest.
And now, nearly two decades on from that first win at Almondvale, we stand one game away from a 10th triumph - with players and staff whose names are written through our history - and who continue to shape our present. At Hampden, it could come full circle.