Vicky on the ‘calm and confidence’ ahead of final three league fixtures

Vicky Jepson says we’re in the right frame of mind ahead of the final three fixtures of the Barclays Women’s Super League campaign.

Our fight for top-flight survival continues as we take on league leaders Manchester United at Leigh Sports Village on Sunday afternoon.

We're looking to get three points on the board following Saturday's 2-2 draw against Brighton & Hove Albion at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, in order to increase the points difference between us and the bottom of the table.

Marc Skinner's side are three points clear of Manchester City at the top of the division and four of Chelsea, who have two games in hand. United have won their last four WSL games.

“They’re fighting for the title and can’t afford to drop points and we want to accumulate as many points as possible, so it’s a good clash," said our Interim Head Coach.

“There’s no fear. There’s certainly pressure, but there is in every game that we play. We’re not looking at other people’s results. We can’t rely on other teams to do our jobs for us. We have to make sure that we concentrate on doing our jobs in the games that we have to play in these last three fixtures.

“Pressure is a privilege and we’ve got to embrace the challenge. We don’t take any game for granted and it’s still very tight at the bottom, but I’m confident and calm in our approach to these next three games. 

“The girls are training well, we’ve had two positive results where we’re coming away not empty handed, which is something we’ve experienced a lot this season, so we can take the plus from that. That doesn’t mean I’m happy with a point because I’m certainly not, we all want three in every game we play, but we’re in good place mentally. 

“Physically, we’re looking sharp and we’ve now got more players back in the squad to give us more options to change things if we need to if the game goes a little bit flat.”

Reflecting on our previous game against Manchester United, a 2-1 defeat at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in February, Vicky said: “We took it right to the wire, which was great, and there’s confidence we can take from it, but we know that United are the best team in the league at the moment. 

“They score goals regularly and, if they don’t, they can take it right up to the last minute of the game to score, which we saw against Aston Villa recently. They often score in the last ten minutes of a game, so how we start and finish, we have to make sure we’re really focussed on our task and the subs that come on are too. 

“It could have highs and lows but if there are any lows, they won’t drag us down. We’ve got bounce-back ability to make sure that we can put ourselves in a position to compete. We’re not there to just take part in the game, we’re there to compete, and I know that we’ll do that on Sunday.”

As for team news, Vicky provided updates on Ramona Petzelberger, Bethany England, Mana Iwabuchi, Shelina Zadorsky and Nikola Karczewska.

“Ramona will be in the squad for the first time in a while, back with us to travel to the north west this weekend,” she said. “We have a few players on managed minutes, which we’ll do further assessments on on matchday minus one.

“Mana is slowly allowed more minutes now which is great, and now we’ve got Petz to add to that. Shelina is now allowed 90 minutes as well, so she’ll be part of the squad.

“Niki will be assessed on matchday minus one. She’s got a problem with her groin so we’ll see if she’s in a good place to travel with the team.”

“Beth’s okay. She wasn’t feeling 100 percent going into the Brighton game and, after she scored that second goal, she said to me she felt a little bit sick, so health comes first. We got her off the pitch to rest and recover and made the changes that we had to. Beth’s in a good place, don’t worry.”