Women's football news
Written by: Jack
Scott Booth has spoken ahead of this week’s game away to Palace, and his frustration from last Friday night’s defeat to Charlton.
Despite being proud of his side’s efforts in the game, he feels they’ve been left hard done by.
“It was a really good night all round apart from a couple of things. The result and the decisions we found ourselves up against it with.
“A sending off that should not be a sending off, I still don’t see where Shauna has done anything. It would have descended into chaos if she did anything but nothing came of it whatsoever and she now gets a three game ban.
“It’s painful for Shauna when she’s been in the side and playing well and it’s off the back of a very poor decision.
“We’re then on the wrong side of a penalty decision which is one of the softest pens I have ever seen. Really difficult for the players to deal with that because they’ve given so much, played really good football and get undone like that.
“I don’t usually comment on a referees performance after a game in post match interviews, but that one was so bad that I feel like I have to talk about it, otherwise it goes unseen. Nothing will get done anyway but for me, the players need to see that I’m defending them and highlighting something that shouldn’t have happened.
“It’s just frustrating because it’s not been the only game this season where it’s been poor. It’s not just me saying this, all the clubs are saying the same thing.”
We picked up a dramatic two points against Palace in the Conti Cup following a last gasp equaliser and penalty shootout win, but Scott knows we’ll be in for a tough game Sunday.
“We’ve now got to build on the way we’re playing despite not getting the results, and build on the relationship between the players on the pitch which are now pretty consistent. But we have to put the ball in the net.
“However, there was really good football played, they did what we asked for which was to bring the fire on the pitch, they were really physical, we had real detail on our passing through the lines. Everything was as it should be and how we trained for.
“It’s business as usual for us, we’ve got a real tough away game to Palace, we know how good a side they are and how clinical they can be. We managed a result against them in the cup, but it’s really important we get a good win and performance on Sunday.”
Lastly, Scott commented on the Women’s FA Cup Prize Money announcement that came this week.
“It’s not quite there yet, it’s moving in the right direction, people are working really hard to try and even out that prize money.
“Some of our players can be proud of their efforts last season which has had a knock on effect but it’s not enough yet.
“Maggie said herself we have to be careful, it needs to be filtered down much more so that the clubs that really need it, can benefit from it, so still a lot to be done.”