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Match Preview | Aberdeen Women v Hamilton Accies Women

17 September 2021
Author AFC Media Team

 

Competition: SWPL 1
Match: Aberdeen v Hamilton Academical Women
Venue: Balmoral Stadium
Kick Off: 16:00
Ticket Information: Adults – £5 U16s – Free. Full ticket information can be found here.
TV Coverage: Match highlights will be available on RedTV from Tuesday.
Red Matchday: Will be available to purchase at the turnstiles or online by clicking here. 
Social Media: Follow @AberdeenWomen on Twitter for in game updates and match reaction.

After winning their first game of the SWPL1 season against Partick Thistle last Sunday, co-manager Emma Hunter, midfielder Natasha Bruce and Johan Fraser preview this weekend’s game with Hamilton Accies.

To watch an interview with Loren Campbell on RedTV, please click here.

Emma Hunter

“Hamilton Academical are our visitors, a team we are familiar with as they were runners-up to us in SWPL2 last season.

“When you play a team that you have played against recently, I guess you could feel a little more comfortable going into the game because you think you know what to expect. Having said that, going up to SWPL1, everyone’s expectations rise. I’ll be expecting a different Hamilton with the same desire and hard work that they always put into their games. I know their coach Gary Doctor really well and he always has his team well organised with a clear game plan, so I’ll expect no different from Accies. They won at Hearts in their opening game so they also have the confidence of having some points on the board, despite having a difficult day last week against Rangers.

“We’ll be looking to use our home advantage and take another three points to add to those we got last week against Partick Thistle. It was good to get our first three points of the season on the board and pleasing to get a few goals and a clean sheet away from home. It was a hard-fought contest but it was good to see the team finding a way to win in a difficult game. Young Mya Christie came off the bench to make her debut and scored the second goal so that shows the quality we have in the squad. We’ll be looking to build on that win now and try to gather a bit of momentum over the next few games.”

Natasha Bruce

“It was a tough game. Those watching would have seen a real scrap at times, but what that proved is that we are a versatile team. It is something that we showed when we were coming up through the leagues.

“We played Partick last season, so we knew what they were about. We are resilient and we can adapt to situations. The team has different styles of play that we can revert to when required. We stuck to the task and ultimately came away with three very important points.

“We have quite a varied squad in terms of age and experience and we are all learning and improving every week, but whilst we do that, we also need to find a way to win games, especially on the road, so it was very positive result.

“We are a team that is used to winning, and we are a team that feel we can compete in every single game in this league, but there are no easy games this season. It was so important to get the first win on the board as quickly as possible. It will help us build confidence and get ourselves up the table. Now we can look forward to the game against Hamilton Accies.”

Johan Fraser

“We’ve had a positive start. We had the cup games first and got through the group to the next stage so that set us up well for the league. We’ve lost the games against Celtic and Rangers but I think we managed to show what we can do and we scored two goals in both those games. We just have to take the positives from those performances and take them into the rest of the season”.

Emma Hunter and Gavin Beith’s squad has already been tested in the early stages of the campaign with injuries to some key players. “We’ve been quite unlucky with injuries since the start of the season, but we’ve got a big squad and a lot of quality waiting to come in. Training has been really good and anyone can come into the team on a match day and have an impact”.

One of those young players, Mya Christie scored in last week’s win over Partick Thistle and Fraser is looking to follow that up with another win over Hamilton at the Balmoral Stadium. “We’ll be looking to take all three points, we played them twice last season and won one and lost one against them. I think the league table last season speaks for itself though and we know what we’re capable of so we’ll be looking to get the win, some goals and put in a good performance”.

There was a great turnout for the last match at the ground and Fraser knows the team really appreciated the support. “It was so good against Celtic. It was probably the biggest crowd we’ve ever had in. We were quite surprised considering the game was live on TV. It made a massive difference to us, even when Celtic scored, the fans got right behind us and gave us that drive to get back into the game so it would be great to see them back again on Sunday.”

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