The end of the season is looming as Saints head to the Midlands, for their penultimate game against Coventry United, and very last away game! This season has flown by and I’m not sure that I’m ready for it to end, it’s such a long summer break! This game will take place at Butts Park Arena with kick off being 2pm. It would lovely to see as many fans there as possible, to bring the noise and spur the girls on to hopefully winning those 3 points!
Just a quick reminder before I carry on, Sunday at 3pm a UK Wide alert is due to be tested. This will be a siren like sound or vibration lasting about 10 seconds to your mobile phones, a message will also appear on the Home Screen, you can turn off this alert system via settings if you wish not to receive.
Last time out
The last time we played Coventry was back on a cold, wet and windy night in November, a night which I’m sure former Coventry star Wilko will not forget, opening up her account with a first half hattrick and what could be one of the fastest goals within the championship? I don’t know but we will have to try and find that out. Throughout the match we were the more dominant side, constantly attacking and were also very strong in defence when they were pushing forward. In their attacks though, we were great at dispossessing and winning that ball back.
Looking at the stats from this game, possession was 50/50 with Saints creating a lot more chances with our 19 shots to their 4, 10 of ours which were on target, and of their 4 shots, none of theirs tested Kayla in the slightest.
Our first goal of the evening came within the first 27 seconds of the match, absolute madness and enough to get everyone going and gunning for more in the blistering conditions. Wilko blocked an attempted Coventry clearance and went onto the bouncing ball
and with no hesitation at all, she fired that half-volley home! Just 38 minutes after her first goal, she got onto the end of a second after Ella Pusey retrieved the ball and cut it back to Wilko, she took a shot which was blocked and then blasted the rebound into the back of the net. The third and final goal of the half was from a cross delivered in by Megan Collett which Wilko got on the end of! First half hattrick! Madness!
The 3 points were secured in the first half and the second half remaining goaless. Cov got a lot dirtier in the second half though and I’m surprised that there were no major injuries. We controlled this match well and I’m hoping that we see the same this Sunday.
Looking ahead
We head into the match on Sunday with Saints sitting in 5th place in the table. We are 15 points behind Bristol City who are sitting pretty in top spot, needing only 1 point to get promoted (depending on Birmingham) and are 9 points behind London City Lionesses who sit in 2nd. We come off the back of our win at home against LCL last week and what a performance from us it was, we really deserved to win that one. Hopefully, our momentum will continue, and we can complete the double over Coventry and make it a home and an away win against them. Let’s bring those 3 points home!
Coventry currently sits in 12th in the table with 7 points. In 20 matches they have won 2, drawn 1 and lost 17, scoring 16 and conceding 62. A team who is very susceptible to letting goals in, which hopefully we can take advantage of. Coventrys home form sees them sit 12th in the table, they’ve gained 6 points in the 10 matches they’ve played at home. They have won 2, drew 0 and also lost 8, whilst scoring 8 and conceding 29. Sadly, Coventrys fate has already been sealed with them being confirmed as relegated from the championship.
The last outing that Coventry had was against Sheffield United at home, which saw them lose 4 nil after 2 goals were scored in each half! Coventry only had 32% possession in this game and were dominated by Sheffield who had a staggering 29 shots, 14 of which were on target.
Coventry’s top scorer is Isobel Goodwin who recently signed from Aston Villa, she’s put away 4 goals this season. Second top is Mary Mcateer, she’s scored a total of 3 goals this season. With Coventry not being big on the goal scoring, I’m intrigued to see if they put any away against us this Sunday.
Overall
Coventry United is a team who we’ve played more than once, in fact we played them back in 2020 in the FA Cup. Our very first outing at St Marys but unfortunately, that game ended with us getting knocked out the tournament after a 4-1 win to them.
Going into the game on Sunday, I’m hoping that the momentum of how well we played last Sunday against LCL carries over, and we see another attacking and fighting performance. I feel that Coventry is going to give a bit of bite too with wanting to end their season with, I guess, a last hurrah. So, I feel they are going to fight a good battle in trying to get something from their very last two games being a championship team.
Match officials
Referee – Dora Jakab
Assistant referee – Leoni Harland
Assistant referee – Maya Korpal
Fourth official – Ralph Frostick
KEEP UP TO DATE
Can’t make it to Butts Park Arena? There will be live commentary of the clash available at southamptonfc.com.
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