Aaron D’Antino praised our performance after we cruised into the knockout stages of the FA Women’s Continental League Cup.
Head coach Joe Montemurro was absent due to personal reasons and his assistant took charge of an impressive 9-0 victory against London Bees at Meadow Park
We spoke to D’Antino afterwards and this is what he said:
on whether it was the perfect night…
Pretty much! It was a solid performance, we had players picking up minutes and the youngsters played their part too. That was the thought process and the planning in terms of rotating the squad. It was the perfect night for us and it’s always great to see the youngsters get on the scoresheet. They deserve it because they’ve been with us since pre-season working hard and they’ve taken their opportunity tonight.
on what he wanted to see from his side when he knew that we’d dominate possession…
Nothing really changes for me. The process leading into the game was identical, but the main thing for us was our standards and remaining disciplined in the game. That for me is the thing that it comes down to in these types of games. It’s all in the head and that’s the message that we drove home after the game. It was a pleasure to watch in terms of how we managed the game from behind and then also when it did break down, our recovery, which again, is all about our mentally and discipline. That was very pleasing.
on the importance of playing senior players around youngsters…
It’s crucial. You need experience around the younger girls, largely just from an educational perspective because it’s invaluable to them. Having the likes of Viv coaching Mel and Ruby on the pitch is great. Overall, I’m really proud of the performance tonight. Some of them haven’t played for a bit, but they really maintained our standard.
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