Speaking after Charlton Women’s 2-0 win over Coventry United on Sunday, assistant coach Kim Dixson explained how she wants the Addicks to use the three points as a springboard for further success.
“I think just for the girls’ confidence it’s a big win. We’ve obviously not lost this year so far, we’ve got new players that are still bedding in so we can only get better and stronger, and fitter as well.
“Coming into the game we knew it was a big game and we knew it was a must win for us. We prepared for it very well, the players knew their jobs and, to be honest, I saw this coming. I said to the girls if we try and keep a clean sheet, we’ll win the game because we’ve got players that can hurt them and we can score goals. I think the energy we had today was very good and we saw the game out really well.”
Dixson explained that the 2-2 draw against Liverpool in January has spurred on the Addicks who are now building momentum as they look to climb up the FA Women’s Championship league table.
“Psychologically, going off the bottom a couple of weeks ago against Liverpool was massive. Since that, we can see that the confidence is building with us. Now, we can build from this performance and that’s what we want to do. We don’t want to be down the bottom, we want to move up the table as much as we can and get loads of wins so we don’t have to look over our shoulder.
“I think we just need to go into every single game having this feeling and knowing if we work hard, we’ve got players to hurt teams.”
Ella Rutherford was instrumental in the victory at Butts Park Arena, creating goals from Jess King and Lois Heuchan, and the forward explained that the result is a reflection of Riteesh Mishra’s side’s endeavours on the training pitches at Sparrows Lane.
She said: “I feel amazing. I think in the past we’ve been really unlucky with the results we’ve got but today things just clicked and it just feels great for once to go and get the three points and finish our chances.
“We put hard work in every week, we all work really hard. Riteesh [Mishra] makes sure we are so prepared for every game we go into so we’ve got all the tools, it’s just about putting it into practice and actually finishing our goals and chances.
“We know that we go into every game as prepared as we can be, more prepared than our opposition, so it’s just massive for us to win. We are going to kick on now and hopefully take it into next week.”
Charlton host sixth-placed Lewes at The Oakwood on Sunday afternoon as they look to extend the gap between themselves and the league’s bottom two sides.
Article by James Waller