Aston Villa head coach Carla Ward insists that there will be no holiday mindset from her players as they approach the end of the season.
The Villans have two games left to play before the campaign comes to an end. They travel to Brighton & Hove Albion this weekend before hosting title-chasing Manchester City on the final day of the season.
When speaking to the media ahead of this weekend’s fixture at Broadfield Stadium, Aston Villa boss Ward said that her side want to compete until the very final whistle blows on the 2023/2024 season.
“We are here to continue our work until the final day of the season,” Ward said. “We did that last year by going to Arsenal, we took that seriously and it’ll be no different this time around.
“We’ve had really good battles against [Manchester] City and it’d be naive for anyone to think that it’s a foregone conclusion.
“We will continue to play our part like we have done all season. We were disappointed with our own standards starting the season as we did. It’s so important for us as a group and individuals that we finish the season strong.
“Regardless of the noise around what’s going on with Manchester City and Chelsea, the bottom line is that we want to go and compete, try and win our final two matches. I can assure you now that there will be no holiday mindset going into either of those games.”
Going on to discuss latest opponents Brighton & Hove Albion, Ward sees a team that has very much taken on the club’s philosophy and style of play. She is expecting a very competitive match against The Seagulls in Crawley this weekend.
She said “Since Mikey [Harris] has come in, he’s done things the Brighton way. The men’s game, women’s game, academy, they all like to play the same way. Brighton have a very clear philosophy from top to bottom and you can see the work that they’ve done off the pitch has been excellent over the last few years.
“Mikey has come from their academy and he has installed the Brighton way of playing. They like to play out from the back, they like to keep the ball; they’ve played a really good style recently and they’ll be tough to play against. I thought they were excellent against Spurs.
“They’re going to be a tough team. We’ve had success at Crawley in the last couple of years but again, they’re going to want to finish strong. For both camps, it is a big game.”
Aston Villa’s Barclays Women’s Super League fixture at Brighton & Hove Albion kicks-off at 1pm on Saturday afternoon.