By Blake Bint
UNIVERSITY of South Wales Women’s 1sts assistant manager Craig Reddy refused to be downcast following a 3-2 defeat to Bristol University in their BUCS season opener.
Goals from Barry Town striker Taite Trivett and Cardiff’s Megan Saunders were not enough to prevent the reverse at the Sport Park.
‘‘Our performance was very up and down, it’s a massive learning curve for the girls today,’’ said Reddy.
‘’We haven’t been able to get games in before today so players have come in with no real idea of the standard or the intensity which we’re playing at.
Reporting from the USW Sports park this afternoon for USW Women’s 1st vs Bristol University Women’s 1st in the BUCS Women’s Premier South.
Live updates to follow for @SportsJournoUSW ⌛️ pic.twitter.com/fXKFyNAGSa
— Freddie Owers (@freddieowers) October 5, 2022
“It’s a fast game, particularly on this 4G surface so it’s a learning curve but plenty of positives to take out of today.
‘‘The fact that we scored two goals and created a lot more chances first half that we were disappointed not to take just showed there was loads of positives in this game.’’
Reddy led the opening game of the season in the absence of regular boss Kath Morgan, but couldn’t find a way to engineer three points.
He added: ‘‘I think we will definitely get better now that the girls have an understanding of the level but they haven’t had many games.
“some of them haven’t been playing regularly for their clubs so that’s an issue as they didn’t have that sharpness but they will benefit massively from today.
‘‘There’s obviously a few new players but they’ve done really well and now they know some of the other players a bit better we can definitely build on that.”
90’ Full Time here at the Sports Park, Bristol take the victory with a 3-2 win thanks to Stella Morgan’s winner in the second half! #SportsJournoUSW #USWmn1vsBristolWMn1 pic.twitter.com/sw1gbUmsZA
— Ioan Saunders (@IoanSaundersUSW) October 5, 2022
Following some key players graduating in 2022 the USW squad has seen some new faces in the league opener.
‘’It’s a rebuild which you get with university football, you only get them three years, four if you’re lucky,” Reddy added.
“Plenty of new faces coming in and some of them really impressed and a few others who will get to grips and they’ll get there.
“There’s stuff to build on from and we got a few more to come in that are injured and were missing today so we’ll look forward to our next game and go from there.’’