After the women’s team suffered a narrow away defeat to Dronfield Town at the weekend, manager Andrea Parkinson provided her thoughts on the game.
She said: “To be honest, not our best. I don’t know what kind of circumstances affected it, but it’s definitely not where we want to be in terms of standards and playing-wise.
“Our keeper made some really good saves. The game looked narrow in the result but could have been a lot more if it wasn’t for Rhianne (Carroll) in goal.
“We really weren’t at it and when you come across teams like Dronfield who are going to be up there looking for promotion like ourselves, you’re going to get punished.
“Overall, it’s just tightening up on little things, so in training we’ll do probably half-an-hour just going back to basics and then really look at our shape going into Sunday’s game.
“Obviously we’re new to the division so don’t know a lot about the teams, but it shows that we’re at that standard because the losses have been narrow.
“If you look at the last couple of weeks, our second-half performance in the cup against Bugbrooke was our standard – their keeper just made some good saves and I said to the players after the game that if you’re looking and reflecting on performances, we’ve set our own standards against Bugbrooke.”
Andrea then spoke of the importance of gaining some consistency in the coming games, saying: “We can’t seem to gain momentum at the minute so we’ll win one, draw and then lose a couple.
“If the season’s going to be like that then we’re going to finish mid-table – I think of the hard work that the players put in and they don’t deserve that.
“Games come thick and fast so we’ve got to put that one behind us, learn from it and really focus on winning in the County Cup on Sunday to then gain momentum into the week after.”
Looking ahead to the County Cup game against Sleetmoor this weekend, Andrea said: “We don’t know a lot about the opposition, but we’ll start as strong as we can and prep as hard as we have done for any other game this week and really focus on some of the things from Sunday.
“We must win to help confidence and take momentum into the league the week after.
“We got to the semi-final of it last year so it’s a cup that can go any way really. I said from the start our focus is the league but if cup games are going to help build momentum and confidence then I’ll take them.”
Praising the support of the fans so far this season, Andrea added: “On Sunday I saw quite a few people take selfies at the game and tag us and say they were supporting and that’s huge, not only for the players, but for the local area as well.”
Please support the women this Sunday as they take on Sleetmoor United Ladies at Shirebrook, with a 2pm kick-off.
