Women's football news
Written by: Joe
Lewes FC interim manager Craig Gill says the team is well prepared for the threat Coventry United will offer on Sunday as the league’s bottom-placed club seek to avoid relegation.
Coventry need two wins from their last two games to overhaul the five-point deficit on 11th-place Watford and escape the drop.
Gill’s Lewes team sit eighth in the division and victory on Sunday would end a three-game winless streak and potentially lift the Rooks up to seventh place.
“It’s going to be a tough game,” says Gill. “We empathise massively with them as a football club, having gone into administration and taken a 10-point deduction.
“They find themselves now in the position they’re in having to win their last two games of the season.
“Because of that they’ve going to come at us with full force from the first whistle. We’ll be prepared for that but will also approach this game with our normal manner.
“We’ll play with high intensity, on the front foot and take the game to Coventry, because we want to finish the game with three points. We want to finish this season on a high and take maximum points from our last two games against Coventry and Liverpool.”
‘We’ll be prepared’
Lewes head into the contest having lost 1-0 at London City before Easter – a result that frustrated the boss considering the chances Lucy Ashworth-Clifford and co. created.
“We were obviously bitterly disappointed following the 1-0 defeat to London City, given the amount of possession we had and the number of goalscoring opportunities we created,” says Gill.
“In fact we hit the woodwork three times. We felt our performance deserved at least one point, if not three.
“As usual we have reviewed the game through out video and with the players. We take the lessons learned from it into our next game, against Coventry on Sunday.
“We’ll be prepared. We’ve had another good training week and the players have been superb. But we have to put that training performance into a matchday performance and convert our chances.
“If we do that hopefully it will be enough to see us come away from Coventry with a positive result on Sunday.”
Focus on Coventry
Lewes beat Coventry United 4-1 at the Dripping Pan back in November, with goals from Paul Howells, Ini Umotong and a Ashworth-Clifford double securing the victory.
Since then Coventry have beaten the likes of Durham, Blackburn and Crystal Palace, but their points deduction means they have been moved to the bottom of the FA Women’s Championship.
Katie Wilkinson scored a late equaliser in the 1-1 draw at Bristol City last Sunday, which keeps alive their hopes of survival.
It is now six league games on the bounce without defeat for Coventry. And defender Nat Johnson recently told their club’s media that there is still fight left in this side.
“It’s frustrating we didn’t come away (from Bristol) with all three points. We did ourselves proud, created lots of chances and stuck at it to the very end,” said Johnson.
“The girls have been fighting so hard. We’re six games unbeaten now and the fight is really on (to stay up).”
Coventry’s manager Jay Bradford also spoke to their club media about Sunday’s upcoming game, saying: “We’re playing at home (against Lewes) and that’s the big one for us. If you’ve been on this journey with us, you know how it feels.
“You know how unbelievably well this squad and group of staff have done to get to this squad. The fact we’re still in this fight at this point, and showing the results we’re getting and the performances we’re doing, it’s unbelievable.”
Coventry United vs Lewes kicks off at 2pm on Sunday.
Photo: James Boyes (flickr)