Aston Villa head coach Carla Ward says that it is important that her side keep focused on football when they face West Ham United at The Chigwell Construction Stadium this afternoon.
The Villans and The Hammers have contested two feisty fixtures so far this season in which eight yellow cards have been issued along with one red.
Aston Villa have had the better disciplinary record in those two meetings and head coach Ward says that focusing on football will again be hugely important when the two sides renew their rivalry in East London this afternoon.
“It’s not just West Ham, some teams now try to win football matches in different ways to what we do,” Ward said when speaking in the pre-match press conference. “All we can do is control what we do; we like to get the ball down, dominate the ball and play in the right way. It is really important that we do that and focus on that rather than buying into some of the antics that come with some of the games.
“It is about us and what we do. We have a group of really professional players that understand that it is a waste of time getting involved in all of that nonsense if I’m honest.”
The two sides last met in the fifth round of the Vitality Women’s FA Cup just a fortnight ago. On that occasion, the pair battled out a 1-1 draw at The Chigwell Construction Stadium before Aston Villa won the tie 7-6 on penalty kicks. Ward believes that her side can take plenty of learnings from that contest.
She said “We can take a lot from it, it is never short of competitiveness, it is two teams that give everything and it has been lively. We know what we are going to come up against of course but I’ve told the players that we have to turn up and do things properly. If we do, we have every chance of winning the game.
“It is really important not to focus too much on what they will try and do because we all know what that will look like. We have to try and maintain the way that we play, do things properly and hopefully, we will get three points.”
Aston Villa’s Barclays Women’s Super League fixture at West Ham United kicks-off at 3pm.
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