Page 14 - Women's Soccer Scene Issue No.16 2022-23

Moneyfields produced one of the results of the season on
Sunday, a stunning 4-0 victory over FAWNL Division One
South West leaders Cardiff City Ladies, who had looked
unstoppable in the league until this point.
A proud Moneys captain Ellie Kirby told us it was the
“best performance the club has given” and also enthused
on what has been an impressive start to the season after
winning promotion:
WSS: Congratulations on an amazing result on
Sunday against the league leaders, how good a
performance was that from the team on the day?
EK: I couldn’t be prouder of the whole squad, these big
games are the ones you look forward to the most. To come
away with the three points is one thing, but to put four
past them whilst keeping a clean sheet just shows how
disciplined and focused we all were on the day. Full credit
to all the coaching staff and analysis team, without their
hard work off the pitch it could have been a different
result. Amazing performance all round!
WSS: Given Cardiff's position in the table and their form, is that one of - if not THE
- best result the club has ever had?
EK: I think it’s most definitely the best performance the club has given. Up until this season
league games haven’t been too challenging so this league is a big step up for us. So, technically,
beating the current league leaders (who have been dominating) in the 4th tier is our best result
to date, it’s certainly feels like that anyway.
WSS: Was there any particular plan going into the game?
EK: We knew Cardiff had a lot of attacking threats which we wanted to minimise and isolate, we
did adapt our formation slightly to do this. Full credit to Karl [Watson] as it did work. We never
approached the game thinking we would sit back and defend, we always trust in the players
we’ve got and we can punish teams when we get it right. The main message going into the game
was to be disciplined, focused and clinical in the final third. The result might be a shock to a lot
of teams, but for me personally that performance and result has just been a matter of time, we’ve
got an abundance of talent in this team, we’ve just had uncontrollable factors this season causing
some inconsistent results. Hopefully this will be the start of a good run of results for us.
WSS: Unfortunately you have no game this week but then you start of four home
games when you play Larkhall Athletic, how good will it be to be playing some
home matches at last?
EK: Yeah, we’ve definitely had a run of long away games, Exeter and Cardiff back to back. It’s
always nice playing at home, especially now with our new ground for the rest of the season
being at Fareham Town, very much looking forward to getting some supporters in.
WSS: Overall, how is the team finding it in their first season in the FAWNL since
winning promotion?
EK: I think we’ve all adjusted really well to it, the gap between the 5th and 4th tier is massive,
the standard of teams is a lot higher, things you can get away with in the 5th tier you can get
punished for massively in the National League. We are doing incredibly well with it being our
first season, sitting in fourth position and wanting to push higher shows that we are competing
with the teams more accustomed to this league. Overall, I think we’ve had a great start, a few
games we all know we should have got more from, but that just shows the ambitions of this
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