Oxford United Women’s Development Squad face Wimbledon on Sunday in the Development League.
With no game for the first team this weekend, we caught up with George Anthony, Manager of the Development Squad.
“We’re feeling good, we’re in a good place as a team and we’ve been working hard in training over the last couple of weeks and we’re hoping we can take the things we’ve been doing into the game. It’s going to be a tough game; Wimbledon are always a good outfit and have been difficult games when we’ve played them before so we’re looking forward to it.”
There’s a great atmosphere between the First Team and the Development side at Oxford United Women, and George can see the positive impact this has on his players.
“The younger players gain so much from the learned experience of the first team and the older players. It shows them what the next step looks like and the levels they need to be at to compete for those places in the future. That’s the pathway that we want the development squad to achieve so it sets them some goals and also helps on the social side when there’s integration between both squads.”
With one loss and one win on the board at the start of the season, Anthony is hoping his squad can push on to fight for the league title.
“We want to be competing with the best teams at the top of the league. That’s the mentality throughout the club, we want to play the best football we can and be the best versions of ourselves. It’s important that we prep for all our games with that as our goal.”