Women | Joel Hutton: We’ve got to bounce back
Cardiff City FC Women manager Joel Hutton revealed his thoughts at Plough Road following the Bluebirds’ exit from the FAW Women’s Cup at the Semi-Final stage on Sunday afternoon.
City crafted a range of early opportunities, before Kate Jeremiah broke the deadlock after 20 minutes and added another ten minutes later, which proved enough to secure Abergavenny’s first ever FAW Women’s Cup Final.
“It’s obviously disappointing, but we didn’t score when we were on top,” began Joel following the final whistle. “I think we started the game particularly well and showed great intensity, created a lot of opportunities, so I had a good feeling about it then.
“Although, we didn’t score, which you’ve got to do against the better teams and I was a bit disappointed with the two goals we conceded, but the fight and spirit in the second-half was a lot better. Ultimately, the damage was done when we conceded the two soft goals.”
At the beginning of the second-half, centre-back Daisy Connolly was replaced by forward Danielle Green as Cardiff City aimed to swiftly reduce the goal deficit. Joel added: “At half-time, we changed the shape and had to be a little bit more positive, so we got attacker Danielle [Green] on and sacrificed centre-back Daisy [Connolly], who didn’t play bad at all - it was just that we needed to be more attacking.”
The Bluebirds have a great opportunity to bounce back with a victory on Sunday, April 7th against Cyncoed Ladies and with three fixtures remaining, the team aim to finish the season on a high by winning all. He concluded: “It’d be nice to bounce back on Sunday against Cyncoed and we’ve also got to play Abergavenny again on the final day of the season, so with three games remaining, we’ve got to win them all to finish as high up the WPWL table as possible.”