Richard Wood was disappointed by his side’s lack of intensity in Swindon Town Women‘s 2-0 loss to Queens Park Rangers WFC at the SkyEX community stadium.
“The level of intensity and desire needs to be there from the start, QPR are a difficult team to play against, and they made things difficult for us, very physical, and I don’t think we really got started.”
After going down by two in the 65th minute, Wood made a triple change bringing the team’s top scorer Annie Colston on who has eight goals in nine games to her name. The changes breathed some needed life into Town’s performance towards the end of the game with Colston hitting the post late in the eightieth minute, but it was just too late for signs of a comeback.
“In the last 15-20 minutes we played how we should have the whole game, which is a lesson learnt unfortunately for everybody, which we spoke about afterwards.”
This came after he was forced into making five changes to their starting eleven from their 4-3 win over Abingdon United in the league.
Poppy Dearlove, Katelyn Wort, Libby Waylen, Libby Davies, and Emily McGrogan all came into the starting eleven, there are numerous reasons for the changes according to Wood:
“We had a few changes that we had to make, with Gipsy’s (Viveash) red card in the Worthing game, Holly Beck-Esson is away, and Annie (Colston) picked up a nasty injury at the end of the Abingdon game, it’s a league cup game so obviously that gives us the chance to use some squad rotation, we’ve got players in the squad looking for opportunities.”
⏹️ We exit the @FAWNL Cup this afternoon.#STFC pic.twitter.com/a8FSFq9kDD
— Swindon Town Women Football Club (@SwindonTownWFC) September 29, 2024
One of the players who earned their opportunity at a start was Libby Waylen after she scored the late winner against Abingdon in the previous game. Unfortunately, Waylen went down injured early in the first half and managed to fight for her position until early in the second where she had to be supported off the pitch by her teammates in pain.
Injuries while in good form can be demoralising both for the player and the team, so it’s important to stay on the pulse updated on how long of an affect this injury will have:
“It’s probably not too serious, she’s obviously a bit disappointed after having the opportunity to start.
“She picked up a knock in training on Thursday, and the initial injury was the top of her foot was just sore, but then she’s rolled her ankle, so it’s just disappointing, hopefully it won’t be a long-term injury, so she can rest, recover, and come back-in.”
48: Town are forced into their first change after Libby Waylen goes down injured, lets hope it's nothing serious ❤️🔁
— Swindon Town Women Football Club (@SwindonTownWFC) September 29, 2024
#STFC pic.twitter.com/59RHPgRIhr
Injuries are unsurprising for Town Women as they have faced a tough run of fixtures having played Worthing, Abingdon, and QPR, in the space of seven days, “It’s been a long emotional week, and we were a bit flat today, understandably so”, was what Wood had to comment on the impact of fatigue on his side’s performance.
Fuelled by the result in the cup, Wood’s side will return to league action next Sunday as they take on Bristol Rovers at the Memorial Stadium, looking to maintain their unbeaten eight game opening streak and push for promotion.
