Cheltenham Saracens Women’s head coach Simon Galpin was relieved with their 1-0 win against Cheltenham Civil Service Ladies in their County Cup quarter-final fixture.
“I’m glad that it is another game out of the way, the pitches are not great so it’s nice to play another game in the cup rather than the league. We need to reset now and go into a really important next week against Dursley.”
With the semi-final fixture around a month away, full focus is on the league with Saracens playing three fixtures before it, with two of them against fellow strugglers Dursley and the game in between those two against Bishops Cleeve.
“There are some very good teams left in it, but like every game, we will reset and whoever is put in front of us we will do our best, hopefully we come out of it with no injuries and turn our sights back to the league.”
“I think the game was very even all the way through. We didn’t have a lot of chances, they didn’t have a lot of chances, it had scruffy moments. There was a part through the second half, where it go very scruffy, despite talking about it at half-time about keeping it simple and organised, but the last 10 minutes of the game we look more composed and we saw the game out won 1-0 so I’m very happy.”
A great performance from the whole team, moves us through to the Semi-Final 👏
— Cheltenham Saracens Women (@WomenSaracens) February 16, 2025
Goal from Leah Rhodes, sponsored by Ballerz#womensfootball #football #cheltenham pic.twitter.com/VB1sdEOYki
Galpin was also happy with the amount of players he has available despite a couple injuries during the game to his “small squad” with a big push needed in both the league and the cup.
“The most important thing is we have got players available for next week, we picked up a few injuries today and we’re quite a small squad so one or two out makes a big difference. We probably won’t reflect too much on this game, we will watch it back and have a look at it but we won’t reflect too much and we’ll go into every league game the same; play basic, quality football, keep it simple and that’s what me and my coaching staff promote.”
“I told them even when we played Cirencester, in the first round or second round, ‘we’re playing against good teams’ we need to learn from it and the expectations are if we win great, if we lose great, it’s all about our learning curve.”
Galpin’s side will face Gloucester City in the semi-final.
