Aston Villa’s interim manager Shaun Goater says that his side’s Barclays Women’s Super League fixture against West Ham United is a ‘must-win’ game.
The Villans play host to The Hammers at Villa Park on Sunday afternoon. It is the two clubs’ final match before the Christmas break.
Aston Villa manager Robert de Pauw left his position in midweek with the club having not achieved their goals so far this season. When speaking to the media ahead of this weekend’s fixture against West Ham United, interim boss Goater highlighted the importance of ending the calendar year with a win and challenging for a higher position in the rankings.
“It’s a ‘must-win’ because of where we are in the table,” Goater said. “As a club, the aspirations are to be higher and we’ve not had the start to the season that we would’ve liked.
“We use the term ‘must-win’, it is because we are better than where we are. We need to show that, play with confidence and start to get results.”
West Ham United arrive in the Midlands in excellent goalscoring form having scored 14 goals in four games. Goater said that Aston Villa must be strong at both ends of the pitch this weekend.
He said “They will test us, so we need to be solid and strong. We need to be organised, compact, so that we’re not giving away silly opportunities and likewise, we need to be creative, we need to be on the front-foot and make sure we are calm and composed in the final third and also, be ruthless.
“We need to take the opportunities. In games, we have been getting opportunities but we need to take them. Against Charlton [in midweek], it was good to see that we got so many opportunities and we were able to take some of them.”
Rachel Daly and Ebony Salmon both netted doubles in a 4-1 Women’s League Cup victory over Charlton Athletic in midweek and Goater was pleased to see the club’s forward players on the scoresheet.
He said “It was really good because you always want the strikers to be scoring goals. I understand more than most that the more consistent you are at scoring goals, the better it is. If you have forwards that are scoring, you always know that they’ll come to the fore and get you out of tight jams.
“We anticipate a tough game against West Ham but we know the players that are in-form could produce the goods for us.”
Aston Villa’s Barclays Women’s Super League fixture against West Ham United kicks-off at 2pm on Sunday afternoon. Tickets remain on-sale and can be purchased by clicking here.
About The Author
Daniel Pentland
I am the editor and owner of the WSL Full-Time brand which I launched in 2018.
I am an accredited journalist with the FWA, SJA and AIPS. I have reported from various levels of men’s and women’s elite football since 2016.