Aston Villa head coach Carla Ward says that her side’s latest fixture against Everton will be tough and that The Blue Girls have the quality in their ranks to bounce back to form at any time.
Ward’s side won 2-0 at Everton in their last Barclays FA Women’s Super League match a little over a fortnight ago while the pair will meet in the reverse fixture at The Banks’s Stadium on Wednesday evening.
When speaking ahead of the match, Ward said that she is expecting a tougher encounter this time around whilst commenting that Everton have the players to hurt you even if they are not in their greatest form.
“This is going to be a tough, tough game and a completely different fixture to when we played them last time,” Ward said. “Good players don’t stay quiet for long, they’ve got exceptional players, they’ve got world-class players.
“At some point, I have absolutely no doubt in my mind that their season will turn, albeit there is only eight games left. They’ve got an opportunity to finish strong and they’ve got winners in that dressing room. We have to make sure that we are focused, we are disciplined and we have to go out with the mindset that this is another game of football rather than the fact that we have just played them recently.”
Aston Villa have collected the majority of their league points away from home this season and Ward went on to indicate that the team will implement a new approach to their game against Everton at The Banks’s Stadium.
She said “I kind of touched on it with the players and I said that our away form is in the top four in the division but our home form is not so much. There are a few things that we are changing tomorrow night at home that will feel different for the players, we are going to change and adapt a couple of things so hopefully, that’ll help.
“We’ve got to keep doing what we’re doing. We are in a really good moment, there’s great belief across the group, there’s confidence amongst the group and we are in a position at the minute where we will run through brick walls for each other. I know what I am going to get from these players right now and that’s whole-hearted effort. If we can combine that with the football that we have been playing, hopefully, we can turn that home form around.”
Aston Villa’s Barclays FA Women’s Super League fixture against Everton kicks-off at 7pm on Wednesday evening. Card only turnstiles will be in operation at The Banks’s Stadium.