Chris Church | Resilience has been key to positive run

Swansea City Women’s interim head coach Chris Church praised the team’s resilience and challenged them to maintain that quality after reaching the Bute Energy Welsh Cup semi-finals with a 6-1 win over Cascade YC Women.

The Swans had to come from behind after Erin Parry put Cascade ahead early on with a fantastic strike, but two goals in eight minutes from Stacey John-Davis saw the Swans quickly respond and take the lead.

From there, the Swans established their dominance, with Kelsey Thomas netting her first goal for the club, before Katy Hosford scored a second-half double.

A dominant performance was then topped off by debutant Jasmine Guymer’s stunning strike as the Swans marched into the last four.

Church praised the character shown by Swansea feels that will be vital if they are to go all the way in the Bute Energy Welsh Cup.

“Week in week out the players have shown that character, and they showed it yet again to get the game back and pull away from Cascade quite quickly,” said Church.

“We need to keep this resilience going throughout the entire season now, we want to build on this and not let it drop.

“We wrestled control back, once we got that equaliser we were really good from there and we were good for that win.

“Stacey [John-Davis] is looking really good, after the injury she needed to find a bit of form in front of goal and you can see that now with four goals in two games. There were some lovely finishes, the running off the ball and the skill that she possesses have been really great to see.

“I’m also pleased for Kelsey [Thomas], she had her chance and she took her goal really well, she was always on hand to help the side in attack and defence.

“I’ve known Jasmine [Guymer] for a while now, to give her the chance in a Welsh Cup quarter-final is fantastic. To take the goal the way she did and show the composure that she did, it shows that she definitely has a bright future ahead of her. She has to work hard now and see what happens.

“We talked about this game all week, to be in the semi-finals speaks volumes of our players, as well as being in the quarter-finals of the Adran Trophy and joint second in the league.

“We are in a great position in all three competitions, it’s finely poised and hopefully that can continue, we want to get to that final and win this competition.”

Despite the Swans delight at reaching the final four of the competition, there was concern as goalkeeper Claire Skinner was forced off following a quad injury sustained making a routine save.

With no recognised goalkeeper on the Swans bench, defender Steph Turner stepped forward and finished the game between the sticks for her side.

Church was disappointed to lose Skinner through injury, but praised the bravery of Turner to pull on the gloves for her side.

“Claire [Skinner] is a fantastic keeper, losing anyone of that stature can be difficult and have an effect on the team, even when you are two goals to the good,” he said.

“It was a fantastic effort from Steph Turner, she came over and said she didn’t mind stepping in, which shows that character, and she made a really fantastic save at 3-1.”