Members of the media quizzed Carla Ward on Friday morning during her pre-match press conference.
Aston Villa’s manager shared her thoughts on a number of topics ahead of Sunday’s Barclays WSL game against Brighton & Hove Albion.
Here’s what she had to say…
On ending the year with a win...
“We have to go and win the game. It’s a game we have to be focused for, be prepared for. It’s an opportunity to jump above them in the league and finish the first half of the season a bit stronger than that start of it.”
On Brighton...
“They’ve got quality… they’ve shown that. They’ve had some really good performances and some they’ll be disappointed in. It’s a little bit like ourselves. Both teams will want to finish [the year] on a high and that’s why it’s going to be an interesting game.”
On 2023...
“One thing we’ve manage to maintain is confidence and belief throughout. That’s probably something I’ve spent most of my time on… making sure attitudes and mentality don’t drop. Confidence is tough… we’ve had to try and keep people believing which is what what we’ve done. Against Manchester City last week we were excellent. Mentality was good, work-rate was good, we couldn’t fault them. Midweek was a confident performance. We’re coming into this in a good place. We’re ready to go and take three points.”
“We had a few players with a [sickness] bug before the [Manchester City] game but it didn’t stop them performing, which is a credit to them. Daph [van Domselaar] took a hit to the head in quite a nasty collision. She’s out with concussion. [Alisha] Lehmann is still a doubt. She came back from the international break with a knee injury which we’ve been managing. Not sure if she’ll make it into the squad. Same with Dan Turner… she’s been struggling after [Manchester] City with a niggle, so it’s a question mark whether she’ll make it at the weekend.”
