Nottingham Forest secured their place in the quarterfinals of the FA Women’s National League Cup after a 6-0 victory over Peterborough United. I had the pleasure of speaking to Forest manager, Carly Davies, after the game to get her thoughts on the action. Here is what she had to say:
“The game has ended in a 6-0 victory and a place in the quarterfinals for yourselves. What are your thoughts on the game?”
“I’m very pleased. We wanted to do well in all competitions this year. We obviously got knocked out this time last year by Newcastle, so we wanted to better that. I’m pleased we used all five 78/*substitutions off the bench again today, and we had multiple goal scorers. Overall, I think it was a very comfortable afternoon, so we take the win and move our focus to the next game.”
“Looking at the squad’s development, how important is it to have a balance of experienced players and younger talent coming through the ranks?”
“It’s huge. We went out and recruited players with experience beyond this league, and even beyond the Championship. We already had players who had that experience within the playing group, and we’ve then gone and brought in some really exciting, young talented players. They have the flare, and they don’t play with any fear, which is brilliant. Equally, they need to learn from the senior players who have that game management understanding and can guide them through it too. I think we are there with the blend at the moment.”
“The League Cup brings its own level of intensity – how does your approach to a cup game differ from league games, if at all?”
“It doesn’t really differ for us to be honest. Things will change game to game, depending on the challenges the opposition oppose. We want to win every game of football, but we want to put in good performances. We focus very much so on our own style of play. There are obviously some things that in cup games, the draw is good for you, so you can dedicate the time to try some things out, or try players in different positions etc. Other than that, we prepare for the cup games the same way we do for every league game, and that’s to find ways to beat the opposition, find areas in which we think we can exploit them and win the game.”
“On the topic of league action, have you noticed a shift in competitiveness between the clubs competing in the league of the last few seasons as the growth of the game continues?”
“I think, you know I was in the league last year with the girls, it was very difficult last year. Obviously Newcastle went and ran away with the league, and probably rightly so after the investment they had. However, Burnley have invested again, obviously we’ve invested heavily, Wolves have done the same, they’ve got some players there now that are on contracts that weren’t on contracts before. I think the overall level of standards is increasing, we’ve invested a little bit more than last year, but so have other clubs around us. The challenge in the league is getting higher every year. I think the league this year is more competitive than last year, even with Newcastle out of it, but we’ve seen that with how close it is at the top of the table. Everybody is sort of one point, two points behind each other, so there are very fine margins for error. It’s a very competitive league, but that’s why we have to stay on the top of our game.”
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