Charlton Women’s captain Grace Coombs is looking forward to returning to The Valley on Saturday as her side take on Aston Villa in the FA Women's Championship.
The game kicks-off at 3pm and tickets are currently available at £7 for adults and £4 for concessions. Click here for more information.
Coombs said: “After a couple of weeks off, with a game postponed, we’re looking forward to getting back out there and seeing how the game goes. Everyone will be up for it and more excited because we haven’t had a game. It’s a Saturday at 3pm so it’ll be a different routine but with it being at The Valley, everyone is so excited.
“We’ve had good results at The Valley, so it’ll give us extra incentive to not lose. We never want to lose at home anyway but the push of being at The Valley will push us on to get a good result.
“We want to get a lot of people there and bring them back. We’re ready to showcase what we can do in front of a bigger crowd.”
Aston Villa sit second in the FA Women’s Championship after four matches and the Addicks will be looking to stop the Villains winning run. Assistant manager Josh Oatham is expecting an exciting match-up between two strong teams.
He said: “We always look forward to games at The Valley, they’re always special occasions. The fact that we have got Aston Villa, who are flying in the division, makes the game interesting for the neutral. We hope we can get as many supporters down to watch the game and we’re looking forward to putting on a good display against a really good side.
“It’ll give us a good chance to see where we’re at as a side, coming up against a team who have had a really good start to the season. We’re all really excited for the challenge that’s ahead.”
Oatham has urged the Charlton faithful to replicate the atmosphere seen at The Valley recently, which he believes is a key factor in the team’s performances: “The fans have had such a big impact on the men's side under Lee Bowyer, everyone has got behind the team and create an amazing atmosphere. If we can take a small percentage of that into our game, it’ll give our players a massive lift. Every 10 percent we can get will really help us as a team and give us an extra advantage. We’d love to recreate the atmosphere at The Valley in the women’s game to make it an amazing spectacle.”
Despite the excitement around the fixture in SE7, Oatham remains fully focussed on coming away with the three points: “We need to treat it as a normal fixture, there’s three points up for grabs. We need to enjoy it and promote the women’s game as much as we can leading up to it but it’s a 90-minute match and we need to get 3 points and start making a claim towards what we want to achieve this season. The fixture itself is the most important thing.”
Article by Nick Emms
Tickets are currently available at £7 for adults and £4 for concessions. Click here for more information.