Doncaster Rovers Belles will be aiming to maintain their position at the top of the WSL 2, as they welcome Yeovil Town to the Keepmoat Stadium on Saturday.
Glen Harris’ side commenced their 2015 campaign in spectacular fashion with a thumping 3-0 victory over Durham, before crashing out of the FA Cup at the hands of WSL 1 giants Manchester City. The Belles now face a tough run-in of fixtures against a number of promotion candidates in the coming weeks.
After a 5th placed finish last season, Jamie Sherwood’s Yeovil Town will certainly be hopeful for a promotion push, after being the surprise package of the previous year. Despite their lacklustre start to the season – conceding a quartet of goals from Fran Kirby in a 4-2 defeat against Reading – the Glovers will now be hoping to climb the table with a potential three points against the league leaders.
The visitors will undeniably be encouraged by recent arrivals Corinne Yorston, tipped as a marquee signing from Bristol Academy, and Ann-Marie Heatherson, who has come out of retirement to add goals to the side. However, the last meeting between the two sides fell in favour of the Belles, who secured a calm win courtesy of a Sue Smith brace in their final game of the 2014 season.
Harris spoke to BellesTV ahead of the fixture: “Yeovil will be a tough test for us, but we want tough games.
“I said to the girls after the Manchester City game that they should be proud of what they’ve done, but now we’ve got to focus on the bread and butter of the league. That’s always been the main aim as we want to get out of the Women’s Super League 2.”
Yeovil player Corinne Yorston spoke about the upcoming fixture, while also reflecting on their recent defeat at the hands of the Royals.
“Against Doncaster this weekend we need to cut out the errors we made leading up to the goals against Reading and we also need to keep the ball better,” she said. “If we can do that from the first whistle, hopefully we can create more chances, which should, in theory, lead to more goals.
“It’s an area we will work on in training this week, we will analyse the Reading game and look at how Doncaster play and how we might stop them. It was our first league game and we wanted a positive result. That wasn’t to be, but Reading will be up at the top of the league this season, so we can’t be too disappointed.”
Bethany England, Courtney Sweetman-Kirk and Sue Smith all made their way onto the scoresheet for the Belles in their opening fixture.
