The Team
Young, Rees, Owen, Welch, Day, Ridings (C), Heath, Powell, Roberts, Kearle, Jones
The Subs
Braithwaite, Linciano, Garlick
The buzz surrounding the Reds much anticipated return to the Welsh Premier Women's League was short lived after a below par performance against an effective Cardiff City saw the visitors run out comfortable 6-0 winners.
Following the opening day fixture of the 2018/19 “Orchard” Welsh Premier Women's League campaign, team manager Ross Norgrove provided his post match thoughts, following the heavy 6-0 defeat against Cardiff City.
“Obviously I'm disappointed with the final outcome, but I did think that the during first half we were competitive, however the second goal that we conceded before half-time was a bit of a blow, and then once again disappointed with our second half performance where we didn't really compete at all, and I have to give Cardiff City credit, they came here, played well and did the job.
“We knew that Cardiff were a quality team with us having played at this level before and we knew what to expect but I think that there was just not enough fight in the second half and that is what disappointed me but we'll be back on the training pitch this week and we know what we have to work on.
“The positives that can be taken from the game is that I don't like singling out players but I thought that Lowri Ridings, our captain was immense at centre half and I think that some other members of the team need to take a leaf out of her book and the fight that she produced was superb.
“Looking forward to next Sunday, Abergavenny who we face have had a great win today against Swansea City, but we're realistic about what our aims are this season, we know that we have some tough games to start off and we know what our targets are for the season, but we still need to be more competative in the next couple of tough games than we were today.
“The squad has not had that many changes following our promotion, with us bringing in a new goalkeeper Courtney Young whose obviously a previous Premier League winner with Swansea City two years ago, and other than that we've brought in a couple of youngsters who are stepping up from the under sixteen’s; other than that generally it's almost the same squad as last year.
“Although we're disappointed with today's result we will move on with it done and dusted now. Well done to Cardiff on their win, but we move on travelling to Abergavenny next week looking to put on a better performance.”
Report by WPWL reporter Robert Clement.
