Katy Hosford | Swansea City Women well-placed heading into big 2024

Swansea City Women’s captain Katy Hosford is eyeing a successful 2024 as her side get ready to return to action following the winter break.

The Swans ended 2023 with a bang as they beat Barry Town United Women 4-0 in the Genero Adran Premier, extending their fine run of form to eight wins from nine games in all competitions.

That victory left the Swans second in the top-flight table with five games remaining of the first phase of the season, before the division splits for the remainder of the campaign.

The Swans have shown character to put together their strong sequence after a difficult start to the season.

Swansea - who moved to semi-professional status ahead of the start of the season - dropped points to Wrexham, Cardiff Met and Cardiff City within the first half of the phase, while head coach Ceri Phillips was replaced by interim head coach Chris Church.

Hosford is pleased with how her side have responded to the challenges they have faced, and feels confident they will continue to challenge on all fronts as they remain in contention for all three pieces of domestic silverware.

“I think the season is going really well, especially the last few weeks with the run we have been on," she said.

“There are lots of people getting on the scoresheet lately and lots of confidence in the team, so I think we’ve started well.

“To finish the year with a win, four different players of the scoresheet, three points, you can’t ask for much more and hopefully we can keep it going in 2024.

“I think there have been times where we have not gotten the ball in the back of the net as much as we should have, but that’s something we’ve overcome in the last couple of games.

“We’re still in both of the cups which is really good for us, I think everyone is performing really well and the competition is really good in the squad, so hopefully we can keep building.

“The girls that have come in have been excellent, we welcomed them in as a team and now the competition for places is high, even the ones who don’t make the starting XI have shown great attitudes.

“Big games like the one with Wrexham at the Swansea.com Stadium also give us a lot of confidence and hopefully we can take that all into the new year.

“To play in front of so many fans is something we really appreciate, every time we play at the stadium it’s an incredible feeling so hopefully there’s plenty more of that to come.”

The Swans enter 2024 with a Genero Adran Trophy quarter-final against Cardiff Met to look forward to, and a Bute Energy Welsh Cup semi-final against Cardiff City also on the horizon.

Swansea have been in free scoring form in those competitions, already racking up 27 goals, and Hosford feels cup performances have played an important part in how they have hit their stride.

“I think the cup games stand out this season, we’ve done really well with getting the ball in the back of the net, which is really good for the team’s confidence,” added Hosford.

“At the start of the season we spoke about what we wanted to achieve and getting to both cup finals was one of the goals we set.

“We are on our way there at the minute, we need to keep performing well, but we are really looking forward to it and hopefully we can get there.”

The Swans return to the Genero Adran Premier six points behind league leaders Cardiff City, having suffered a 1-0 defeat earlier in the season to the Bluebirds in the first south Wales derby of the season.

And, before their Welsh Cup semi-final clash with the Bluebirds, the Swans will have a crucial game against the champions as they travel to Cardiff for the final game of phase one.

“It’s anybody’s game; we will go into it full of confidence and hopefully get the result,” said Hosford.

“We know they are a really good team and they are difficult to break down, but I think we’ve grown in confidence over the season.

“It will never be an easy match against them, if we do everything right, we train hard and we make up for the errors we made against them last time out we can do well.

"We are in a good place going into the new year."