Bristol City head coach Lauren Smith says that the club have time on their side in the battle for Barclays Women’s Super League survival.
With half of the season played, The Robins are bottom of the table having collected five points from an available 33.
On Sunday, Bristol City face 11th-placed West Ham United at Ashton Gate. That game could be viewed as a relegation six-pointer but regardless of the outcome, Bristol City boss Smith says that her side have time on their side.
“You could look at it that way [a six-pointer],” Smith said when speaking in the pre-match press conference. “If you win, you feel that but we go into it knowing that both outcomes could happen.
“At this point in the season, I don’t think it’s that dramatic. We are only just going into the second half, Brighton was the first time that we played them, so we are only starting that second chunk [of games] now. The fact that it’s the first game of the second set of fixtures, there’s time on our side which is great if it doesn’t go our way. Also, if it does, we need to be aware of that because there’s still time on anyone’s side right now.
“It’s still very close, one win shifts you quite significantly. I still think there’s time but that doesn’t take away the importance of the win this weekend.”
While Bristol City and West Ham United are tied on five points, there is a five-point gap to 10th position in the table. Smith went on to say that she is not looking at whether other clubs could be pulled into a relegation battle, she wants Bristol City to focus on the games where they feel they can get points.
She said “Rather than assessing the picture after the first game back, we look at how we got on in the first half of the season and the teams that we feel that we could have got more from, we still have them to play [again].
“It was a really tight game against Everton which swung towards us in the end, the same when we played Liverpool and when we played them at home in the cup. I still think that there are teams that we can get points out of in the reverse fixtures in the second half of the season.”
Bristol City’s Barclays Women’s Super League fixture against West Ham United kicks-off at 2pm on Sunday afternoon. Tickets remain on-sale and can be purchased by clicking here.
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