AFC Women manager Scott Booth shared his views at full-time after his side were able to advance into the next round of the Scottish Gas Women’s Scottish Cup following victory over Gartcairn.
“First of all I am happy to get through to the next round. In the first half, we dropped well below our standards. I was speaking with the players about having the right focus because we’ve got really important games coming up. We’ve got a midweek game that’s a huge game for us, and I just felt that in the first half, we let our standards drop. Our focus wasn’t there. And that made for a really untidy game of football in the first half. It just felt like nobody could put their foot on the ball. No one could find a pass. Credit to Gartcairn because they came back into it and had a good bit of possession in the first half and caused us problems. I felt like at halftime, we needed to make some changes. We need to have our standards higher and refocus.”
“I think to a large degree in the second half, they did that. It was one moment of brilliance from Niamh, and I think that was about it in the first half. So to have dropped our standards was a key thing for me, because we need to show some consistency in our performances. Particularly in possession, when we want to dominate games. And because our possession play was so poor in the first half, we weren’t able to do that. I think Phoebe and Jo made a big difference when they came on. They helped that ability to put a foot on the ball. That brought Eva more into the game as well, it allowed us to dominate the ball in possession. And I don’t think they had too many opportunities in the second half. So, from that perspective, we were quite happy.”
“I felt like we had to change it at half-time. I didn’t feel like I had any choice in the matter. We needed to fresh things up a bit. We needed to bring on players that were ready to take responsibility to keep the ball for us to move it. And I thought once we started to put our foot in the ball, I thought Phoebe did that really well. She was able to join us up from back to middle to front, which we hadn’t had in the first half. And Jo was the same. I think they showed a pretty good reaction in the second half. I am looking forward to the draw.”
“I just felt, I would say probably say just frustration that we dropped our standards. And, you know, the players need to know that. They knew themselves when I went into the dressing room at halftime. They knew it wasn’t good enough. From that perspective, you know that you need to make changes and give other players opportunities.”
“Niamh has been really good. She can give you a great delivery. She’s quality from that. She obviously took her goal really well. And she battles for everything, and she wears her heart on her sleeve. I thought in the first half, Aimee did that really well also. She gives you everything. And that’s what we’re going to need from all the players. They need to give absolutely everything. They are playing for Aberdeen, they are wearing the red jersey. They need to know that they can’t drop the standards and expect to play.”
“It is a big game on Wednesday. We know that the biggest games at the moment for us are the ones where we play teams around us and Montrose are one of those clubs. So, it’ll not be easy. We know that. They are a good side, and it is away from home.”
