By Evannah Hastings
USW Women’s 1st team football assistant coach Shubham Trivedi believes the team will improve in the coming weeks after a chastening 5-3 defeat to University of Bath in their BUCS league opener.
Trivedi’s side were undone by an electric period of attacking in the closing stages of the first-half which saw Bath score four unanswered goals in quick succession.
The purple patch effectively ended the contest, even though Bath later were reduced to 10 players when their goalkeeper was sent off for a handball.
Trivedi said: “There are not just gaps in the defence.
“We see things we can improve on, because some of the girls are playing with each other for the first time.
“I would say they need to be in rhythm more and they will be once they play with each other for more than a month.”
Having lost key players to graduation, the current USW team has been together for around two weeks. Shubham was therefore impressed some of what they produced.
Trivedi added: “I think ahead of the first game of the season we had just about enough time to learn what our playing level looks like, what our strengths are, our weaknesses are.
“And I think to put them to test in the first game of the season is always a great challenge when you are up against a good team.
“We did pay for our mistakes in conceding the goals, but I think it should give us a good learning opportunity going forward into the season.
“I think our main objective is to improve the current squad.
“We feel quite positive going into the season.”