Vicky previews Aston Villa: “We’re in a good place physically and mentally”

Vicky Jepson is focusing on the creation of goalscoring opportunities for Sunday’s WSL game against Aston Villa.

Our visitors to Brisbane Road this weekend have scored 32 but conceded 28 goals in the league this season and Vicky wants to make sure we make the most of our chances as we bid to return to winning ways.

“The key is to compete with them,” said our Interim Head Coach. “We’re well aware of the quality recruitment that Carla Ward has done at Aston Villa, which has put them in such a great place this season. They score a lot of goals but they can concede goals as well, so we’ll be looking to create chances and score goals as best we can.

“They’re third-highest in the league for counter-attacking shots, so we know that transitionally we’re going to have to nullify those. They’re quite direct and they’re very good at doing that, so we have to make sure that we execute our game plan.

“We’re really looking forward to it, in a great place as a group and we’re at home, so what more could you ask for?”

Despite suffering a late defeat in our last game, a 2-1 loss at Everton prior to the international break, Vicky said the mood in the camp has been positive as we look forward to a key stage of the season.

“It's hard to concede a goal like we did and not come away with points, but when you’ve performed well, you can take positives from the process and we’ve got to build on those and make sure we nullify the problems that occurred in that game,” she added. “Not managing the game until the final whistle was a problem against Everton.

“When we came together in the training ground, the response from the group was really positive. We actually did okay, competed, battled, created opportunities and scored a great goal from Eveliina [Summanen] on the cutback from Beth’s [England] cross, so there were lots of positives and actually hearing that from them meant that I didn’t have to come in being Miss Positive and inject the positivity into the group because it was already naturally there.

“We can’t control what goes on outside of our own fixtures and we can’t rely on other people to do our jobs for us. We know we can’t be complacent in our last five games, but confidence is high. We’re in a good place physically and mentally to execute what we need to over the next five games to accumulate the points we need to stay in the WSL.

“However, it’s not going to be easy. There’s no team that we come up against that will just gift us the points. We’ve got to earn them and that’s where we have to make sure that we’re not complacent in those moments.”

Vicky also provided a comprehensive team news update on five of our players.

“Ria Percival is back in full-time training,” she said. “On Saturday, she will be in her first 11v11 practice on matchday minus one, which is fantastic for her after having a year out from the game. She’s looking as sharp as ever, she’s worked tirelessly to get herself to where she is and we’re hoping that, come Brighton, she’ll be in the squad, providing things go well. We’ll see whether she will get minutes then, but she’ll definitely be on the bench for that game if things go to plan.

“Ellie Brazil is now back running on the grass, which is another step forward for her. That’s great for her. She’s not in team training yet as she’s not at that part of her recovery.

“Shelina Zadorksy is back training with the squad and is available for minutes. If she’s called upon, we can utilise her, but she’s on managed minutes as she’s not completed a full week of training yet. Hopefully this week will see her through with positive outcomes.

“Ramona Petzelberger is back in training. She’s had a little bit of a setback this week. Last week, in the international window, she was in full training with the squad. She’s had a little bit of a setback, so at the moment we’re managing her through our sessions. She’s in maybe 50 per cent of the sessions with the team and then we bring her out to go with the physical performance team to try to help bridge that gap and manage what she’s going through.

“Kyah Simon is still not back training with the team. She’s running on the grass. She had a little flare-up with her calf, so that’s being managed. The medical team have done a fantastic job with the amount of injuries that we’ve had, especially with the amount of ACL injuries that we’ve had, to get everybody now back on the pitches. That’s a big plus.”