Oxford United Women travel to AFC Bournemouth Women in the League Cup this weekend.
The U’s will play their first cup competition game of the season with kick off at 2 PM at Ringwood Town FC. Entrance for Sunday’s game is free.
Bournemouth also sit top of their league, Division One South West, but will come into this game having suffered the first defeat of their campaign. The Cherries lost 3-2 to United’s local rivals Swindon Town FC Women last time out.
Despite being the league below the U’s, manager Liam Gilbert knows this will not be an easy test.
“We know Bournemouth are a very good team and they’ll be wanting to pick up a good result after last weekend’s result. It’ll give us the opportunity to give some different players some minutes and for us to refresh. It’s nice to play different teams and different grounds,” said Liam.
“We want to put things right, and they’re a very attacking team so it could be a very good game. We know what we need to work on, and the girls have been brilliant in training this week. Hopefully we can get back to being who we are, and the rest should take care of itself” added the Gaffer.
The Yellows will look to add a cup run to their excellent start to the season, in which their record of four wins and one draw puts them at the top of the Southern Premier Division. Summer signing Shelly Provan has played a big part in United’s defensive success, and she is looking forward to the cup-tie.
“Don’t we all love the cup! I think the excitement from both teams will be high. We’ll be expecting a strong team in Bournemouth and they’ll bring some new challenges but ones that we’ll look forward to. Following last week’s draw I think we’ve come away from that with some extra motivation and hopefully we’ll take some of those improvements into Sunday.”
The U’s return to league action the following Sunday, the 2nd of October as they host Watford FC Women at Court Place Farm for a top of the table clash.