• Sat. Dec 14th, 2024

Oxford United Women manager Liam Gilbert thrilled with summer signings

Byoxfordnewspaper

Aug 31, 2022

LIAM Gilbert is delighted to see his summer signings play their part in Oxford United Women’s promising start to the season.

Leah Burridge scored twice in Sunday’s 2-0 win at Plymouth Argyle after Naomi Cole found the net in the opening-day victory over Bridgwater United.

Fellow new arrival Shelley Provan started both games, while Jaime Gotch was a second-half substitute in Devon.

READ MORE: Karl Robinson urges Oxford United players to stake a claim tonight

They will get another chance to impress when the U’s look to make it three wins out of three against London Bees at the RAW Charging Stadium tonight (7.45pm).

United manager Gilbert said: “The new girls have come in and fitted in brilliantly.

“One of the things with our recruitment model is we look at good people.

“You spend a lot of time with each other, and I’ve seen negative people take away from what you want to do in the past.

“For them to put into practice what we want to do so quickly, and to make such a positive impact, has been really good.”

Bees have also made a good start to the FA Women’s National League Southern Premier season, taking four points from their opening two games.

They only appointed interim head coach Marie Hourihan on the eve of the new campaign and Gilbert knows this makes United's task trickier.

He added: “They’ll be a very tough team, they’ve got some very good players.

“I know they’ve had a new manager just come in, so they’ll be on a high of a new manager, new system, new setup.

“They’ll be flying, and it’ll be a tough game for us.”