Jon Dawe previews Bridgwater cup clash
Argyle Women’s Assistant Coach Jon Dawe believes the Greens can build upon a positive performance last weekend as they head into a cup match against Bridgwater United on Thursday night.
Despite losing 3-1 to Oxford United on Sunday, there were encouraging signs from Argyle, and now the FA Women’s National League Cup Determining Round fixture gives the Pilgrims a chance to gain some more confidence before Sunday’s league tie against Milton Keynes Dons.
“After Sunday, it's a good opportunity for us to build on some of our successes in that game,” Dawe told Argyle TV.
“We were really pleased with the performance at the weekend, albeit some individual errors towards the end of the game, which probably weren't what we deserved on reflection.
“It’s an opportunity. We've reviewed it. We'll look at some of those things we can do a little bit better and try to put that into practice against Bridgwater.
“We spoke to the girls before the game and told them they needed to increase their physical output without the ball, and I thought they were fantastic, particularly in the first half.
“They executed the game plan really well. I thought the timing of some of our pressing was excellent and exactly what we were looking for. As a result of that, we got quite a lot of opportunities to build dangerous attacks for ourselves.”
On Thursday morning, Argyle announced the signing of Katie Grigg, who last played for Devon rivals Exeter City, and Dawe is delighted with what he has seen from the defender in training so far.
He said: “Katie's been involved with the club previously. She's come in and trained with us for a couple of weeks and shown good intensity and quality on the ball, which is what we're looking for in terms of the way we're playing.
“It’s going to be great to get Katie integrated into the squad and move forward with us.”
With three games in seven days, squad rotation and recovery time is important for Argyle, which Dawe and the rest of the coaching team are aware of before the ties against Bridgwater United and MK Dons in the upcoming days.
“I think there will be some changes for the weekend,” Dawe said, “but it's all about getting that correct balance and not leaving ourselves too short.
“We've also got to be mindful of the loading on the players to make sure that we go into the MK Dons game on Sunday with a real freshness about our play. It's important that we get two positive results this week.”