Jamie Sherwood | It’s about us setting our standards for the season ahead
Swansea City Women’s first-team manager Jamie Sherwood felt his side’s 105-minute friendly outing against Bridgwater United Women was an important step in setting their standards ahead of the 2024-25 campaign.
The Swans played out three 35-minute games against the fourth-tier English side, drawing the first two games 0-0 before winning the final contest 2-1.
Stacey John-Davis netted the Swans first goal with a calm low finish, before a Swans trialist doubled the advantage with a strike from the edge of the box. Bridgwater pulled a goal back late on after winning possession in the Swans half, but it would prove to be only a consolation.
Sherwood was delighted to have a first look at his new side, and is aiming to develop the team’s physical capabilities ahead of the new season.
“It was really pleasing, it was pleasing to see the girls play because we haven’t had the opportunity yet,” said Sherwood.
“I’ve got high expectations of the group and they’ve started to set those standards, which is great.
“It’s nice to see some combinations and relationships start on the pitch, so it’s a good start for us.
“It’s a baseline for us now, we know what we expect and what we should be doing and we can only get better as we go.
“I’m new into the club, I’m new to the players and the players are new to me, we’ve worked together over the last couple of weeks but getting minutes into their legs and air into their lungs is the most important part.
“There was a lot of rotation towards the final third of the game, which caused us to be a little bit unbalanced, but for me the idea is to get minutes in everyone’s legs and we’ve done that.
“We want to improve our physical capabilities; the players have all identified that we weren’t at the percentages that we wanted to be last year.
“So that will come from training and 105 minutes today, which is more than we would normally play. It allows us to get those minutes in the legs and towards the end of it the legs were a little bit heavy, but for me that’s a perfect opportunity.
“We were in control for a good two-thirds of the game, we just couldn’t get the ball in the back of the net which is the hardest thing to do.
“But when teams tire and we are as fit as we can be, then we can do what we did late on in the game.
“The biggest thing for me is that we can stay at the same intensity for as long as we possibly can to wear teams down, control possession, and then take our opportunities when they come.”