Angharad James previews Villa: “These last five games, we’ll treat them like cup finals”

Angharad James is raring to go as we hit crunch time in the Women’s Super League.

With five games remaining, we sit ninth in the table, but only two points separate Leicester City, currently sitting bottom, Reading in 11th and Brighton, who are now level on 12 points with us after beating Everton on Wednesday night.

So, it’s no surprise that ‘Haz’ now speaks about ‘five cup finals’, kicking off against Aston Villa at Brisbane Road on Sunday (2pm) then Brighton on the main stage at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium (29 April, 5.15pm), a trip to Manchester United (7 May, 12.30pm), Reading at Brisbane Road (21 May, 2pm) and finally a trip to West Ham on 27 May (3pm).

The midfielder is back from a busy international break with Wales, playing 90 minutes and scoring in their 4-1 win against Northern Ireland before playing another 90 minutes in a 1-1 draw away to Portugal.

“It was nice to go away with Wales for two competitive games, now I’m back and raring to go,” she told us at Hotspur Way on Thursday. “We’ve been gaining momentum over the last few games. I think we can take that into this weekend’s game.

“The pressure is on. We’ve got to perform and get results. These last five games, we’re going to treat them like cup finals. Each game is as important as the others. We’ll take it one game at a time with this weekend’s game against Villa. We know that they’re in good form, they’re a good team and it’s going to be a difficult game, but we’ve prepared right this week and we’re raring to go.”

Last time we met Aston Villa was in January, when Bethany England scored on her debut in a 2-1 defeat at Poundland Bescot Stadium.

“We’re building and that’s the most important thing,” Haz said. “These last five games are very important for us. We have to perform in every game and pick up results. We’re building as a team and Bethany and Mana and other players have really settled in well now and the team is really gelling together. I’m excited to see how the last five games go. We’re building nicely. We had a good game against Everton, and it was unfortunate that we conceded so late on, but we controlled the game in a way that we hadn’t done in so long, so hopefully we can take that into this game.”

Asked to reflect on her first season at the Club as a whole, Haz provided an honest assessment on her time as a Lilywhite so far.

“It’s been a challenging year for everyone at the Club,” she said. “I don’t think we’re where we’d like to be or where we should be, and that’s collectively, players and staff. We all take responsibility for that. Now it’s time to look forward and hopefully these last five games go the way we want, and we can build again next year, but each game is so important. We’ll take the Villa game first; we’ve prepared the right way this week and we’re all ready and raring to go. We’re treating it like a cup final, so we’ll be ready for the game.”