Jenna Schillaci: “We must stay focussed”

Captain Jenna Schillaci says it’s important that the team don’t get too carried away following a positive start to our debut season in the Barclays FA Women’s Super League (WSL).

After a narrow 1-0 defeat to Chelsea at Stamford Bridge in our opening game of the season, we went on to seal our first win in the WSL against Liverpool at The Hive, followed by a brilliant 2-0 away victory against West Ham in front of almost 25,000 fans at the London Stadium.

Back-to-back wins in the league puts us in fifth place which has earned Head Coaches Karen Hills and Juan Amoros a nomination for September’s Manager of the Month award.

“We’ve made a massive statement in our first month in the WSL,” Jenna commented. “We said we aren’t here to just make up the numbers and I think to come away with six points in our first three games is a brilliant achievement and credit to everyone for the hard work we’ve all put in.

“I think it’s important for us to concentrate on each game as they come and not get too carried away with the results so far. Everything is going better than we imagined at the moment, but we know that there will always be ups and downs in the season so it’s important that we stay focussed.”

We welcome our old FA Women’s Championship rivals Manchester United to The Hive on Sunday as we look to continue our good momentum in the league.

“There is certainly some rivalry there with United after competing against them in the Championship last season for the two promotion spots, and I think as we’re both new to the league also, that rivalry will probably translate into this division which makes the games more exciting for fans. We’re going into this game with a lot of confidence, the mood in the camp has been good and the main thing for us is to focus on what we need to do on Sunday to get the three points.

“I think it will be a completely different game to our previous encounters with them. They were full time professionals, competing in a semi-pro league last season, so it was always going to be a tough challenge for us. Although we haven’t been fully professional for long, we feel that we have improved greatly which makes the game on Sunday even more fascinating because we’ll be able to see how far we’ve come.”

Fans can purchase tickets for Sunday’s game against Manchester United at The Hive here, kick-off is 12.30pm and the game will be broadcast live on BBC.