Perks looking for defensive solidity at Billericay
This Sunday, Argyle Women travel to Essex to face Billericay Town in the FA Women’s National League Southern Premier Division.
Following an important 3-0 win over London Bees last weekend in the FA Women’s National League Cup, thanks to goals from Georgia Wilson and Charlotte Whitmore. Head Coach Ryan Perks hopes to secure a positive result away from home but is aware of the challenge that may await Argyle.
“We're on the back of a positive result at the weekend and a strong performance, especially for the first 45 minutes,” Perks told Argyle TV. “I was really pleased with how we played. We’ve got to take that performance into the game on Sunday.
“It's a long trip to Billericay. It's always a tough place to go. I think the last couple of seasons we've got a point on the road, so hopefully we can go there and perform as well as we have been playing and get three points.
“We spoke about having a clean sheet mentality and it will be no different this weekend. We want to keep clean sheets. If you defend well and don't concede goals, you've got opportunities to win football games. That's a priority this weekend: keeping another clean sheet.
“We create lots of opportunities in front of goal and the goals will come. We probably should've had a few more on the weekend, but I'd be more concerned if we weren't creating those chances, and the girls weren't getting opportunities.
“Three points is what we're after this weekend, but Billericay will look to bounce back. They drew with MK Dons at the weekend so we're going to expect a reaction from them as well.”
On Wednesday, Argyle announced the loan signing of goalkeeper Comfort Erhabor from Women’s Super League side Brighton & Hove Albion. Perks is delighted the move was completed and that a strong goalkeeping duo is now available for the Greens.
He said: “We’ve been working to try to bring a goalkeeper in all summer really. We were waiting for the right person to come along. We are extremely happy with Lily. She's an excellent young goalkeeper, but we had only one goalkeeper, so if anything happened, we were in trouble.
“Competition for places is always healthy and we've seen that in training already. Both goalkeepers were fantastic and that's what we want at this football club. We want a headache and want the players to make it tough on me to make decisions. That's going to be no different in the goalkeeper department.
“Lily will keep her place this weekend and it’s thoroughly deserved after a clean sheet. We’ll give Comfort the opportunity in the game against Maidenhead United in the cup and then we'll go from there with who fights for that number one spot. It's exciting to have two top goalkeepers at the football club.”
With three long away trips in a row for the Greens, some might see it as a negative. Perks, on the other hand, believes the time spent travelling away from home helps create the bonds needed to succeed this season.
“Travelling gives us a bit more contact time with the players,” Perks said. “Saturday evening, we’ll have a team meeting and a bit of team bonding, and I think with quite a lot of new faces, it gives the girls that bonding time as well.
“I’m quite looking forward to the next three weeks on the road. It sounds weird when we're going to be sat on a bus for long periods but, as I said, it lets us get some detail across to the players on how we want them to play and the time to click together.
“Of course, the absolute main focus is the Sunday and to get the three points away from home.”
