How we’ll deal with the ‘pressure of expectation’

Joe Montemurro is desperate to win back-to-back Women’s Super League titles. 

But he knows that we’ll be presented with new psychological and tactical challenges after such a historic 2018/19 season. 

“We’ve got different pressures and obviously the pressure of expectation now,” said our head coach. 

“It’s all good to win and have the opportunity to be champions and obviously get back into where we need to be, but now it’s about sustaining that and staying there. As I’ve said, it’s that expectation now of us making sure that we have those solid foundations to stay there, which is really important.

“I think we need to maintain our standards not just on the park on matchday, but also in training and maintaining the standards within the group when they’re not on the park. I think they’re the things that are non-negotiable. We know now that these are the standards we need to keep and adhere to. 

“Obviously teams are going to be a little more studious in terms of the way they’re going to try and stop us, so whether they’re defending or putting pressure on us, they’re going to do it for longer periods and we need to be smarter now in terms of making sure we’re consistent in what we do.”