Carlton Fairweather’s Sunderland Ladies have enjoyed a positive start to life in the WSL1, defeating reigning champions Liverpool in their opening match before narrowly missing out on points against title hopefuls Manchester City.
It is quite the opposite story for Bristol Academy who are not only yet to pick up a point this year in the league, but have also lost heavily in the FA Cup and Champions League, knocking them out of both competitions.
Despite this, goalkeeper Mary Earps insists the Vixens are ready for the test on Saturday.
“The league is tough and the fixtures we have got coming up are certainly hard ones, we just need to make sure we are doing our job and then the positive results will come” said Earps.
“Sunderland are a side that have just come up and showed that they mean business with the win against Liverpool.
“They have had their team together for a while now so they will be a good unit and hard to break down.
“They will be wanting to get a good run going, but so do we.”
In Bristol’s mid-week game away to Arsenal, manager Dave Edmondson only named 5 out of a possible 7 substitutes for his bench, as his side look to be struggling since key departures in the summer.
However, Fairweather is still expecting a difficult game for his Lady Black Cats.
“It will be a different kind of game to when we played the likes of Manchester City and Liverpool,” explained Fairweather. “They’re good, technical sides but we don’t really know what to expect from Bristol Academy.
“They’ve had a tough start to the season and their results haven’t been what they would have liked, but they’re a good side with Champions League experience so like I said they’re an unknown quantity.”
He added: “A number of players have left and they’ve had to change their squad so like with any team the new players will take some time to gel and bed in.
“That said, there are no easy games in the FAWSL 1 and we’re expecting to have to work hard and battle, and even though this is the type of game we probably should be looking to win, the expectation will be there in terms of work ethic and determination.”
