by Callum Ellis
WALES women’s manager Jayne Ludlow has named a full-strength squad ahead of her side’s World Cup Qualifier against England.
Wales make the trip to St Mary’s sitting top of Group One, and one point ahead of next week’s close rivals, although they have played one game more.
Ludlow, whose side enjoyed a successful Cyprus Cup run earlier this month, feels her side have a great opportunity against “a top-level nation”.
“It’s an important game for us. We have to prepare well and we have to look forward to what is going to be a massive opportunity for us to compete against a top-level nation.”
Ludlow says former Manchester United and Everton star Phil Neville’s recent appointment as England manager will not have any impact on her approach to the game.
“Any manager leading that type of group of players – it’s going to be a tough ask for us. It’s not so much the environment around the players, it’s the ability of those players.
“Those top-ranked nations are at that level for a reason, they have good development programmes that have been running over 20 years.”
After Wales’ Cyprus Cup run saw them defeated on penalties against Austria, Ludlow hopes her side’s development will encourage more fans to support them in their bid for qualification.
“I’m really happy with where we’re at. We’ve proved that we’re growing as a group – we’re getting each game we play and hopefully that will be the case next Friday as well.
“I think they are expecting around 20,000 down in Southampton which is great for our players, the environment and us as a national team.
“Hopefully we’ll come back to Wales for the June qualifiers and people will want to come out and support us.”
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