Albion Women Manager Siobhan Hodgetts-Still says she was “proud” of the way her side performed on Sunday afternoon as they claimed a crucial 1-0 win over Rugby Borough in the FAWNL.
The Baggies took the lead within 10 minutes courtesy of midfielder Liv Rabjohn, whose sliced half-volley found the top corner.
Albion had to use every ounce of their experience to see off Rugby’s attacks in the latter stages, but did so successfully to take home the three points.
“It’s a massive win for us here today,” Hodgetts-Still beamed. “It’s a great three points, considering they came to our ground earlier in the season and beat us 5-0.
“I’m really proud of the performance that players put in here. We knew it would be tough, but we knew if we stuck to our game plan then we were confident we could get some points out of the game and we did today.
“We knew there would be spaces to get into, so we’d worked on that. It happened today and credit to Liv who hit it into the top bins, an important and well-taken goal.
“I thought the whole team defended well throughout the game. The last 10 minutes they were loading the box and got crosses in, we did well to defend that, stay switched on throughout and manage the game.
“The desire throughout the game was excellent from every single player - that togetherness was excellent. We need that team cohesion to grind us through games and I think we saw that today.”
Rabjohn was handed the captain’s armband for the afternoon and capped off a fine display with the winning goal, which she was delighted by.
“It was an absolutely brilliant day,” Rabjohn said. “We worked hard and it’s exactly what was asked for.
“We worked hard, I enjoyed every minute of it, the girls were class and it was a hard graft. We deserved what we got today.
“To top it off with a goal was great. I think I miscued it a bit, but they all count at the end of the day.
“It should be a big confidence boost. If we can do that against Rugby, we can do it against Burnley and Wolves.”
The Baggies face a tough run in, taking on each of the FAWNL Northern Premier’s current top four in their final five matches, but Hodgetts-Still believes this victory can set the standard for encounters to come.
She said: “We had a chat with the girls and planned out the rest of the season, we know we have a tough run in. Like I said to the players, we have the confidence that when we put in a performance, we can compete and pick up points.
“We must take that confidence into Burnley next week, it’ll be a difficult game, but we went to their place, we made it difficult for them to break us down and we conceded a late goal. Let's give it our best.”
