‘Embrace the challenge’ - Oxtoby

City Women travel to Arsenal sat joint top of Group b on seven points with the hosts after both sides won their first two games and drew their third, losing the penalty shoot-out and missing out on taking home an extra point.

“We’ve used the Conti Cup to rotate the squad and give players minutes and give the younger members of the squad some more experience, which is fantastic and what better way to test yourself than against the champions of England away from home and under the lights, said Oxtoby.

“It’s been really pleasing that when we have brought in players and rotated the squad they have understood what we want from them and it will be a great test for them, because Arsenal move the ball so quickly and their movement is exceptional, so they’ll have to think on their feet and embrace the challenge.”

The City Women boss was also full of praise for her squad and the manner in the which they fought back to claim a point against Reading.

“There was great character shown by the group on Sunday afternoon, no one really gave us a chance of getting an thing out of the game, away from against Reading when we’ve not traditionally played well against them.

“I think Sunday’s game will helped the girls massively from a mentality point of view, we spoke about us needing to brave and if we’re going to be compact to sit behind the ball and absorb pressure. I thought we didn’t do that very well in the opening twenty minutes, which could have been due to a couple of changes we were forced in to.

“Once we got into our groove we looked dangerous on the counter attack, which is what we asked, the girls were great and that result should give them great belief.”

Bristol City Women next home game see them take on Manchester City as Barclays FA Women’s Super League action returns to the SGS College Stoke Gifford Stadium on Sunday, November 24th (12:30pm) and supporters can purchase tickets here.

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