Bristol City head coach Lauren Smith has paid tribute to former loanee Aggie Beever-Jones ahead of an Ashton Gate reunion this afternoon.
The Chelsea forward spent the 2021/2022 season on loan with The Robins. She appeared in every Barclays Women’s Championship fixture that season, scoring five goals as Bristol City finished the campaign in third place.
When speaking to the media ahead of this afternoon’s fixture against Chelsea, Bristol City boss Smith was full of praise for Beever-Jones.
“Aggie’s great,” Smith said. “I think you can probably tell by the smile on my face, watching her career develop and her as a person develop has been just great. She came to us as a very young footballer, just 18, and you could see it in everything that she did. We were part of the process and that’s what we hope to be – part of the process for these players that go on and play at the top level.
“I know that she’ll carry on growing. She’s a great person and she came to watch quite a few of our games last year in the Championship, so I know that she supports us as well. I know that won’t be the case on Sunday, I just hope that we can maybe remember how we defended against her in training, so that if she does come on, we can go, ‘Ah, that’s what she does’.
“Hopefully, she doesn’t have a very successful game against us but then goes on after that point to carry on smashing it because I’m so pleased that she’s managed to get herself into that squad and get onto the pitch. For Emma [Hayes] to rely on her week in, week out is so pleasing to see because she is a phenomenal talent.”
Going on to discuss the threat of Chelsea, Smith sees a side that are yet to hit their peak this season. She is hoping that The Blues don’t bring their very best form to Ashton Gate.
She said “They have had really good times and some tough times as well. They are in a tough situation with it being the last season with Emma [Hayes] at the helm and they’ll want to perform with pride for her. It adds some different pressures perhaps that they won’t be used to. They’re also continually chasing that Champions League success which adds a lot of games to their season.
“They’ve got a really strong team with lots of depth and they can hurt you a lot on any given day. They probably haven’t got to their best yet and I hope they don’t until after Christmas.”
Bristol City’s Barclays Women’s Super League fixture against Chelsea kicks-off at 2pm. Tickets remain on-sale and can be purchased by clicking here.
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