Spurs Women v Bristol City - Karen and Juan's preview

Spurs Women return to Barclays FA Women’s Super League (WSL) action this weekend as we welcome Bristol City to The Hive - kick-off on Sunday (2 February) is 2pm.

Sitting bottom of the league, Bristol have one win from their last six WSL matches which came in a 1-0 away victory against Manchester United.

Following back-to-back defeats in the league to Chelsea and Liverpool, the Vixens progressed into the fifth round of the Women’s FA Cup following a 1-0 triumph over Durham at home last Sunday.

Earlier this season, we defeated Tanya Oxtoby’s side 2-1 at Stoke Gifford Stadium thanks to a brilliant brace from Kit Graham after Abi Harrison had given the Vixens the lead in the first half.

Ahead of Sunday’s meeting with Bristol, Head Coaches Juan Amoros and Karen Hills stressed the importance of adding to our points tally.

“It’s almost like a six-point game for us,” Juan commented. “A win will increase the gap at the bottom of the league and bring us closer to where we want to be, but we know it’s not going to be straightforward. They are getting better and better and their victory against Manchester United proves that.”

Karen added: “You can see how close things are getting in the table to recognise the importance of every point in this league. We know that every team around us is going to be a tough challenge and any team is capable of picking up points. We’ve played Bristol before this season; we know what they’re about, but they’ve strengthened in areas, it’s going to be tough and like we always say – there are no easy games in the WSL. From our 2-1 win against Bristol, we learnt that we can bounce back after going a goal behind and we have the character in the team to push forward and I think we’ve come a long way since beating them.”

After scoring five goals against Barnsley in the Women’s FA Cup last Sunday, Karen hopes the team can be just as ruthless in front of goal in the league at the weekend.

“I can’t stress enough how important it is for us to start converting our chances in the league on a consistent basis but at the same time, we don’t want to put too much pressure on the players," Karen said. "The whole team is willing each other on, and we all have a job to do and we all support one another. We have complete belief in our attacking players, and we know they are capable of hurting any defence in this league.”

Seven changes were made in last week’s FA Cup fourth round win and Juan admitted that some individual performances have given them more to think about when selecting the team to face Bristol.

“Our goals against Barnsley and the performance overall was very pleasing," Juan continued. "Every time we rotate the squad, the players who come into the team step up like they all did last week. Performances in matches are key to getting a place in the line-up and so are the performances in training sessions and they’ve all been working so well in both. It gives us more difficult decisions to make but hopefully we’ll get it right on Sunday and come away with the win.”