Chris Church praises composure shown in Swansea City Women’s cup win

Swansea City Women’s interim coach Chris Church was pleased with the resilience and composure his side showed to come from behind to beat Cwmbran Celtic 8-3 in the second round of the Bute Energy Welsh Cup.

Chloe Chivers netted six of the Swans eight on the day, scoring four in the first half alone.

However, it wasn’t plain sailing for the Swans, with Cwmbran finding themselves 3-2 up after 35 minutes.

But goals either side of half-time from Chivers as well as an own goal and a fantastic strike from Sophie Brisland-Hancocks sealed progression into the quarter-finals.

Church was pleased to have progressed in a cup the Swans want to challenge for, and he praised his players for staying calm through a difficult period of the game.

“I’m happy that we’ve got through, we made hard work of it at times, but we did not panic and stayed composed,” he said.

“The players knew that we needed to roll our sleeves up a bit and calm ourselves down, and I think we did that in the second half.

“We have resilience in abundance in this team, even when things aren’t going quite right we knuckle down, and they put it right in their own way.

“I’ve learned a lot from this game, it was a really great learning tool for me and I think the squad will benefit from this because it keeps them in check and makes sure they are focused.

“We know what Chloe [Chivers] is like when she gets going, and she got going very quickly in this game. She was ruthless at times, I’m happy for her and I hope that this form continues now.

“We’ve said from day one that this is an important cup for us to progress in, we are into the next round, and we want to get to that final.

“We will take a lot from this game, Cascade in the last eight will be a different challenge for us, they will show us their fight and their willing and we will have to come through that again.”