Women | Joel Hutton: Responding with a goal demonstrated our great character
Cardiff City FC Women manager Joel Hutton revealed his thoughts following the Bluebirds’ first Welsh Premier Women’s League draw of the 2018/19 campaign against unbeaten Port Talbot Town Ladies at Cardiff International Sports Campus...
Following the visitors’ opening penalty miss after 31 minutes, City responded with a goal through forward Alana Murphy just one minute later. After the interval, Port Talbot Town were awarded an additional three penalties, but converted only one courtesy of Natalie Ashford, sealing them a point.
“Port Talbot have started well and as I’ve said previously, this is the best Port Talbot side that I’ve seen in years,” began Hutton after the final whistle. “At half-time, we told the girls that it was a terrible penalty to give away and we had a bit of luck with their player missing. Although, we showed great character to go down the other end and score. We said that one goal wouldn’t be enough at half-time and that kind of rang true, but we massively rode our luck.
“We didn’t want the players to get into a scrap with Port Talbot because they’d be better than us and beat us - our girls are not scrappers. That’s no disrespect to Port Talbot, but they’re good at hustling and working hard in midfield. We asked the girls to look after the ball and create space by moving it around quickly, but they didn’t do that.
“I don’t know what was more criminal - giving away four penalties or them missing three. It was probably one of the strangest games that I’ve been involved in and we were very lucky to get a point.”
Kanisha-Mae Underdown and Hannah Daley came on as impact substitutes on the 58th-minute mark and Hutton concluded: “Underdown and Daley had a positive impact when they came on and I think we created a little bit more when we made the substitutions. Ultimately, the strikers have got to be a little bit more selfish and start backing themselves in areas instead of passing to their teammates. If I was in that kind of position, I’d be wanting to put the ball in the back of the net and take all the plaudits.”
