Bethany England: “We are making positive progress”
Sat 27 January 2024, 16:30|
Tottenham Hotspur
Bethany England believes lessons have been learnt from our previous encounter with Manchester City as we welcome them to Leyton Orient’s Brisbane Road on Sunday afternoon (2pm KO) in the Barclays Women’s Super League.
It was a tough evening when we travelled to Manchester earlier in the season, but after a positive start to the New Year – winning all our games in 2024 so far with victories over Sheffield United, West Ham and Southampton – our captain is ready for the challenge of Gareth Taylor’s side.
Speaking to Inside Spurs earlier this week, Bethany said: “Our game against them [Man City] earlier in the season was one game and that shouldn’t define us.
“It was a bad game, everyone knows it and the players on the pitch probably felt it the most, but that doesn’t define the season we have had. We have come on leaps and bounds compared to the last campaign and it was just there day.
We took lessons from it, and we are hoping when we face them again on Sunday, it will be a different result.
“When they [Man City] are on it, they are on it. They have an abundance of quality, especially in that front line, but we took lessons from it, and we are hoping when we face them again on Sunday it will be a different result and we will give it our all.”
Looking back on the start to 2024, Bethany highlighted the new resilience within the team – as we fought back from a goal down against the Blades in the FA Cup and then secured victory against West Ham despite being pegged back on two occasions.
Bethany added: “We are finding new resilience within ourselves to come back and beat teams when we are going one-goal down whereas last season we never had that. That has probably come along with the new recruitment to make it more competitive around the squad. It’s making us better as a team and players and helping us get through those tougher games.”
After missing large chunks of the first half of the season through injury, our captain got off the mark for the campaign with two goals in the FA Cup and has four games under her belt, but she admitted there’s more to come from her and is keen to help the team progress further.
Bethany said: “It has been nice to be back on the pitch, I spent so long off it and lead from afar that I almost felt a bit useless, so hopefully, I am able to bring what I can and help the team, whether that’s scoring goals or keeping the calmness within the group. it’s been good to be amongst the girls again, playing more regularly and hopefully we can continue the good form this season.”
“For me, I just want to score as many goals as possible for the team and for myself. I think I’m still coming back to full match fitness, but that’s not to say I’m unfit, there’s more levels I can go and that will come with more game time.
“I want to make sure this season, no matter where we finish, that we are left in a better place than we were last season. You can see we are making positive progress forward, in terms of our style of play, the entertainment factor and having the confidence, making sure we don’t have to fear these bigger teams.”
