Perks reacts to cup win at Maidenhead
Argyle progressed into the second round of the FA Women’s National League Cup with a 4-1 victory over Maidenhead United on Sunday, much to the pleasure of Head Coach Ryan Perks.
Goals from Katie Dickson, Ava Kuyken, Charlotte Whitmore and Ellie Sara secured victory over the Division One South West side at York Road.
Perks wanted to gain some confidence out of the game with an important league tie against Lewes awaiting, and he is happy with his side’s general performance ahead of next weekend’s fixture.
“I'm really pleased,” Perks told Argyle TV. “We scored some good goals in the game but are slightly disappointed with the goal we conceded. However, it was nice that the girls tried to implement what we worked on in training throughout the week.
“It was a long journey up here. We left Plymouth at 7 o'clock this morning and going uphill in the first half seemed to drain a bit of energy from the legs, but we wanted to progress to the next round, and we've done that today.
“Winning football matches breeds confidence. We've had an ok start in the league and the cup. We want more points on the board in the league but, hopefully, that will come this weekend. We'll have a few players back. We're missing Taya [Pomfret] and Georgia [Wilson]. Imy [Crawford] didn’t go on today, we just rested her, so they'll come back into contention to get in the squad. We need to travel well to Lewes next week and get three points.
“That's where we're at. That's what we're after next week and that's what we're going to expect.
“We dominated the ball and played some excellent football. The only real problems Maidenhead caused us came from us giving the ball away and maybe making the wrong decision on the ball, but you're going to get that sometimes.
“I think we didn't get what we deserved last week and we've probably had an average performance today but got a result. Cup football is about progressing. We've done that, and we're into the next round.”
Despite scoring four goals and dominating the attacking phases of the game, Perks believed his side could’ve put the ball in the back of the net more during the 90 minutes against Maidenhead.
He said: “We scored four, but it should have been a lot more. We created probably five or six really good chances to score on top of the goals and we haven't taken them. There's still work to be done in front of the goal, but that's me being overly critical of the players.”
Brighton loanee Comfort Erhabor made her debut in goal for the Greens. Perks was happy with what he saw but also understands how the new environment and system might take time to get used to.
“It's going to take a little bit of time to settle in with the players and for the players to get used to Comfort as well,” Perks said. “It would have been nice for her to get the clean sheet, but we didn't manage it. I think her distribution was good in spells and her decision-making was fine. We've got Lily who didn't play today, so I'll have to make a tough decision next week.”
