Back-to-back games against Brighton ‘probably a blessing’ for Aston Villa says Ward | OneFootball

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·11 February 2023

Back-to-back games against Brighton ‘probably a blessing’ for Aston Villa says Ward

Article image:Back-to-back games against Brighton ‘probably a blessing’ for Aston Villa says Ward

Aston Villa head coach Carla Ward says that she is not a fan of playing the same opponent two games in a row, however, the double-header against Brighton & Hove Albion is probably a blessing for her side.

The Villans battled out a 1-1 draw with The Seagulls at The Poundland Bescot Stadium last weekend. It is fair to say that it was not Aston Villa’s best performance of the season so far. The two sides will meet again in the reverse fixture at Broadfield Stadium on Sunday, a game which has been rescheduled from earlier in the season.

When speaking in the pre-match press conference, Aston Villa boss Ward said that she doesn’t like back-to-back fixtures against the same opponent, however, on this occasion, her side have been able to analyse their performance from the first game and they can look to right some wrongs this weekend.


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“I would usually say that I’m never a fan of it (playing back-to-back games against the same opponent) and it is never easy but on this occasion, I was delighted because we have been able to pick the bones out of it every single day,” Ward said. “It was a chance to really have a look at where we weren’t good enough. That sounds crazy because we dominated the game and got a point but ultimately, we felt that there were so many areas that we weren’t happy with in our performance.

“This time around, it was probably a blessing for us and there’s an opportunity now for the players to go and put the performance right most importantly.”

Brighton & Hove Albion head coach Jens Scheuer is still finding his feet with his new club and he is working to put his own stamp on the team. Ward is not concentrating too much on what Scheuer and Brighton & Hove Albion plan to do this weekend, the focus is very much on her own side.

She said “As I mentioned previously, Hope (Powell) was exceptional for the women’s game and she is a massive loss.

“It’s still early days for Jens but you can kind of see what he wants to do and how he wants to play. Yes, it is very different to how Hope set her teams up but we have to go into the weekend concentrating on us.”

Aston Villa’s Barclays Women’s Super League fixture at Brighton & Hove Albion kicks-off at 2pm on Sunday afternoon.

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