Despite this afternoon’s match-up between West Midlands rivals Aston Villa and Birmingham City being the first Second City derby in the Barclays FA Women’s Super League, the opposing managers have met many times before.
Speaking in her pre-match press conference in which FA Women’s Super League Full-Time were present, Birmingham City manager Carla Ward said “Me and Gemma [Davies] have had a rivalry, which we’ve called a derby for a number of years now, Sheffield United and Villa, and it’s always had a similar feel, so I think it’ll be no different on Saturday.”
A local derby is always an historic rivalry in English football which players certainly relish the chance to play in while it is also a special occasion for the fans. The Second City derby is one of three local derbies in the Barclays FA Women’s Super League taking place across Women’s Football Weekend.
“Both teams, I’m sure, will be wholehearted, they’ll go out there and give it everything” said Ward. “Some people will put pressure on it, we certainly won’t because I think it’s one we can enjoy.
“If you can’t get yourself up for a derby then you probably shouldn’t be involved in football, so yeah I think it’s fair to say everyone will leave everything out there.”
Ward was certainly thrown in the deep end after joining Blues this summer, with just weeks to go before the start of the season and not enough senior players to even field a starting XI, something Ward acknowledges was definitely difficult. She went on to say “When I first came into Blues and had a couple weeks of pre-season, it was deep end time, but you have to adapt and adjust quickly, it’s a sink or swim situation.”
Since then however, the progress has been vast, she has transformed the Barclays FA Women’s Super League stalwarts, and now, with six points under their belts, they are certainly one of the surprise packages of the season so far.
Ward added “We are on a journey and we’re happy with where we are at the moment, but we’ve got to keep building, we’ve got to keep getting better, we need to add bodies, we need to add various other bits and pieces but where we are right now we’re happy.
“We’re in a good place and we’re pleased to have got off the mark, I think that’s the most important thing, it’s a sigh of relief almost, when you get those first points.
“We were delighted with the win at Reading which was massive and that sort of set us up to go into the Bristol City game.”
Blues will certainly be light on personnel however, with multiple players fighting fit ahead of this afternoon’s clash. Speaking on Thursday, Ward revealed that her side were down to the bare bones.
On Thursday morning, Ward she said “If the game was this afternoon, we’d be playing with 10 players, but we’ve got a great medical team and we’ve got 48 hours now to do our best.
“We were on the phone until late last night (Wednesday) and early this morning (Thursday) trying to sort a few situations out, as it stands there are a number of players, without naming anybody, that are struggling.”
Due to recent rulings on girl’s academies during the national lockdown, it will also be difficult for Ward to utilise the Blues academy to replace those out injured, leaving Birmingham City in a potentially even more difficult situation.
“It’s a bizarre situation with the academy players” she said. “We are under the understanding that number one, we have COVID protocols and they are outside the COVID bubble and number two, there’s an issue because academy players won’t have the screening but we are trying to force open a few doors and trying to get some players from the academy, so I suppose it’s a case of wait and see.
“I’m certainly not dressing anything up or underestimating the situation, we are in the situation we are but we’ve got a small squad, we knew that, so when you get seven injuries you struggle but that’s just part and parcel of the position we’re in in terms of squad size.”
Ward has also had a lot of support from Aitor Karanka, the men’s team manager, having sat down for lunch with him this week ahead of the game, support which she cites as very important.
“He’s always very supportive, as Dean [Smith] is with Gemma [Davies] and I think it’s important and it actually shows they care, because there’s a lot of men’s managers out there that probably don’t, so yeah it’s been a good feeling” Ward added.
Birmingham City’s Barclays FA Women’s Super League fixture against Aston Villa kicks-off at 2:30pm and will be available to watch live on the FA Player.
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