Miller previews SSFC Women's Park View friendly

South Shields Women Co-Head Coach Alex Miller has previewed this Sunday’s pre-season friendly at home against Park View AFC Women.

Read below to find out what she had to say about the fixture, pre-season as a whole and the team’s response in training to the lack of a game last week. 

Q: A game against Park View on Sunday, how is everybody feeling ahead of that one?

“Excited, obviously we were expecting to get the league going but that’s not to be, but the lasses are ready to get after it, as always, this weekend against Park View.

“I don’t think we’ve necessarily come up against them before but we know that they’re a decent team and they’ll give us a really good challenge.

“So we’ll be going out there, setting ourselves up to go into the league the week after.”

Q: After not having a game last week, how important is it to get some minutes this time round? 

“100%. 

“We’ve worked on a few things in training over the last couple of weeks and not had a chance to really put that into practice. 

“It’ll be a really good opportunity to do that and make any fine-tune adjustments before heading into the season for that.” 

Q: How has the team’s response been to that in training over the past couple of weeks?

“It’s been really good, to be honest.

“We’ve managed to get through everything that we’ve wanted to, and effort has been top notch, quality, again, has been really good too.

“From our perspective, it’s gone really as well as it could have done, which is what you want to see happen going into the season, which will, no doubt, be a really, really tough one.

“But we’re positive, the girls are positive and we’re just really looking forward to getting out there and being able to stake our claim on the league, hopefully, and really push ourselves to progress compared to last season.”

Q: Have you got any words to give to the fans, with it being our first home game of pre-season?

“It’s always, always, fantastic to see you come along and support us.

“I think I said it a few weeks ago - we’ve got a few new faces in the team so it’d be a great opportunity for you to see them, for them to see what great fans that Shields has as well.

“Just really get the practice in, going into the season and making sure that we’re in the best state possible going into the league.”

Q: In terms of squad availability, how are we looking there?

“Strong; we’ve got quite a few available, expecting to start the league this weekend, so going into the game on Sunday very strong and looking forward to trying again, put the last things out before we go into the league.” 

Kick-off at Harton Welfare (NE34 0NA) this Sunday, August 31st is at 2pm - it is free entry, so please come along and give the lasses your support! 

Image credit: Craig McNair (@ideventphoto)