Argyle’s FA Women’s National League Cup run continues on Sunday at 2pm when Home Park hosts a second-round tie against Billericay Town.
Convincing wins against Bridgwater United, London Bees and Maidenhead United have placed Head Coach Ryan Perks’ side in good stead, with a win securing a place in the competition's quarter-finals.
Perks is excited about the challenge against a familiar foe from earlier in the season and is hopeful a full week of preparation can help his side in an important match at the Theatre of Greens.
“I’m looking forward to a break in league action,” he told Argyle TV. “We've had a good run in the cup. We want to progress as far as we can, try to put on a performance and build some confidence to take into the league games and FA Cup tie coming up.
“I think the girls have got to go into it with confidence and belief. I said a couple of weeks ago when we were away to Billericay, we were very unlucky not to get anything from that game. I think on the day we were probably the better team. Two lapses of concentration and they score two goals - and that's the story of our season so far. We’ve got to cut out the individual mistakes, stop gifting teams goals and put the ball in the back of the net ourselves a little bit more regularly.
“We've worked hard again this week in training. We've done some analysis, we know what Billericay are about. They've changed their shape slightly in the last week or so and got some positive results, so we've got to try and nullify those threats in the shape we set up and play against them.
“We want to get as far as possible in the cup. We got to the quarter-finals a couple of years ago against Portsmouth. It's about building some confidence to take into an important run of games coming up and to stop a run of bad results. We’ve played okay in spells in games, but we need a performance for 90 minutes and we need to start winning games of football. Hopefully, we can start that this Sunday.”
A busy week in the Women’s schedule saw the Pilgrims play three games in seven days. Lewes, Exeter City and Ipswich got the better of Argyle; Perks is happy to be over the hectic week but is also taking some key positives into the tie against Billericay gained over the three ties.
He said: “It’s just back to normality now, isn't it? It gives us a bit of breathing space in between the games to gather the information we need to come up with a game plan and then implement it in the training sessions we have leading up to those games. Coming into Exeter and Ipswich, we didn't have a training session before those games. We talked through the game plan but trying to implement it on the grass before the game is important.
“We’ve had two sessions this week where we can prepare for the Billericay game and if we look back on Sunday's performance against Ipswich, especially the first 45 minutes, I thought there were lots of positives to take and a few slight tweaks we need to get better at. We’ve looked at those this week and, hopefully, we can do better on Sunday.”
With a heavy load on the squad last week, Perks has ensured recovery time has been a frontrunner in preparations ahead of the match at Home Park. Despite it being a cup game, Argyle’s Head Coach is looking to build confidence and continuity in his side.
“We don't want to change too much,” Perks said. “If I’m being honest, regardless of the cup run or the position, we want a bit of continuity in the team and the relationships to build. I think we might have lacked that for a little bit at the start of the season with a group of new players.
"We’ve lost some players over the last two years to higher teams in higher leagues and we want to keep our best players at this football club. That’s a challenge now and something we want to get better at, but obviously we've recruited well in the summer.
“It takes a little bit of time for those players to bed in. We want to keep building on that and kick-start our season. Hopefully, that starts this weekend with a win against Billericay.”
