Beth Merrick was ‘really pleased’ to contribute with a superb goal to her team’s 2-0 victory over Cheltenham Town, which progressed the Old Gold into the fifth round of the Adobe Women’s FA Cup.
Merrick scored the second with a tremendous strike to double the lead following Amber Hughes’ opener, and the winger spoke on her love for the cup as well as their next league clash against Stourbridge.
On the performance
“I think it was all about being patient as we came off a little bit flat at half-time.
“Sometimes with the occasion and the pressure we put on ourselves, we wanted to be better in that first half but second half we completely controlled the game.
“We had chances to maybe do a little bit better but to come away winning two nil, we’re so happy.”
On her tremendous goal
“After the free-kick that I had around 30 seconds before, I wanted the ground to swallow me up, so I’m really pleased.
“I love this cup regardless of whether it’s men’s or women’s it has a special place in my heart as a football fan.
“Any sort of game that we can get in the FA Cup is memorable. We’ve always said about making memories, we did it last year and we’re certainly going to try and do the exact same thing again.”
On the fifth round of the FA Cup
“I think I’ve scored in every round so far. It’s a really exciting prospect and the further we can go the better. Maybe we can go one further this year, but the fifth round is just so exciting.”
On Stourbridge away next week
“We don’t do anything different; we will prepare exactly the same as we always do.
“We try to focus a lot on ourselves, and Macca will always make small tactical tweaks based on who we are.
“The staff work incredibly hard every single week to prepare us in the best way possible and all we’ve got to do is listen.
“Sometimes Macca will accuse us, me in particular, of not always listening to him but I know full well how much work they all put in so we will play exactly the same.
“This one is parked unfortunately once we’ve had a celebrate tonight and then we’ll move on to Tuesday and getting in and making sure we’re right for Stourbridge.”
By Scarlett Lester
