After the disappointment of a narrow cup final defeat last weekend, this time round Argyle Women head into a huge game in their FAWNL Southern Division campaign.
With two games left, the Greens hold a six-point advantage over AFC Bournemouth for second place and a play-off spot to get into the WSL2. The other key thing to note – the Cherries have two games in hand.
To put it bluntly, Argyle need to win their final two games of the season, starting this weekend against Oxford United at Home Park, to put themselves in the best position to achieve the end goal of promotion. This would make Bournemouth need to win all four of their remaining fixtures to level the Greens’ points tally. And it is worth noting that Bournemouth play league leaders Watford in the final weekend of fixtures, at the end of April.
Head Coach Marie Hourihan is well aware of the position at hand, but assures her side is holding the same approach as throughout the season, taking one game at a time.
Argyle have played Oxford three times this season. In the FAWNL Cup, Argyle won 3-2 having been 2-0 down. A week later, the Pilgrims won 1-0 in the league, away at Oxford, and then a few later the Yellows eliminated Argyle from the Adobe Women’s FA Cup, with a 2-1 win.
“Oxford are a very good team,” Hourihan told Argyle TV. “Since their new manager has come in, there has been a real upturn in results and performances. We fully anticipate a tough afternoon and will need to be at our very best to get anything out of that game.
“They’ve got very good players. They knocked us out of the FA Cup and had a good run within that, so we're under no illusions of the task at hand. We’re at Home Park, however, and have our good record here at home. Off the back of the disappointment of the cup result on Saturday, we need a reaction.
“We need to put a performance together that's more attuned to the standards that we've set ourselves this season and know what we need to do.
“We reviewed the game and went through the areas we were really disappointed with. The occasion probably played a part in that first-half performance level, but the intensity Bournemouth came at us with in that first 45 minutes was probably the difference.
“You have to give credit to them for that, but for us now, we know the task at hand. We've worked so hard to get ourselves into this position with two games to go, and need to make sure that we take care, look after ourselves and make sure that we put in the performance that hopefully will lead to the result that we want.
“The support from the Green Army on Saturday was phenomenal, with the amount of supporters that came, but also how vocal they were in the game played a massive factor in the improvement in our second-half performance.
“They've been excellent this season, and we just hope again that we get that crowd on Sunday to not only push the team on, but also celebrate what has been achieved this season.”
