Watford midfielder Megan Chandler says that the club will bounce back from their relegation to the FA Women’s National League Southern Premier Division.
The Golden Girls looked set to escape the dreaded drop on the final day of the FA Women’s Championship season with a goalless draw only for relegation rivals Coventry United to score a 97th-minute winning goal to keep The Red and Greens up and send Watford down.
When speaking to FAWSL Full-Time after the final whistle at Vicarage Road, a deflated Chandler said that Watford will recover from their relegation and will come back stronger.
“Watford are a big club and the women’s section is so much bigger these days,” Chandler said. “The backing from the men, the foundation is so much better and our GM is fantastic.
“I have no doubt with the squad that we have got and the players that we will bring in over the summer that we are going to move forward and we will use this as the fire to fuel next season. I have no doubt that we will give it all that we have got to get back to where we belong.”
It may have been a completely different picture for Watford had they been awarded a 78th-minute penalty when Nat Haigh looked to have caught Anne Meiwald in the box. When asked about the decision, Chandler did not want to pin her side’s relegation on the officials.
She said “It’s a game of what if’s – what if we got the penalty, we might have been in a different position now but football’s cruel, sometimes it goes your way and sometimes it doesn’t. Unfortunately, today it didn’t go our way.”
Watford now return to the FA Women’s National League Southern Premier Division less than 12 months after being promoted to the second tier.