South Wales FA captain Stephen Price praises squad togetherness in UEFA Regions Cup following stunning win over Evia Region at Jenner Park
South Wales FA & Brecon Corries goalkeeper Stephen Price praised the team togetherness after a successful Regions Cup campaign in Wales following their comfortable win over Evia Region in the UEFA Regions Cup.
He was quick to praise the Wales side, who have now all but qualified for the next phase of the competition following a sublime win over Evia Region in Barry.
“The group have been fantastic this week, we haven’t trained as perhaps we would have liked to, or at the intensity of what we would have liked to and it can be difficult playing on a 3G surface like that, especially when you are having knocks and you have stiffness, but everyone is smiling and laughing, we do everything together.
“There are no groups within a group, we are all in this together.
“It has been fantastic and I think that is perhaps key to our performance today. We could have gone into hiding today after losing against Macedonia, but we never, we went out there and put in a performance which merits a place in the next round of this tournament.
“Now we have the opportunity to go to somewhere like Malta for 10 days, which is absolutely fantastic. The boys were on it from minute one today – and that was fantastic to see.”
Wales’ captain also applauded the response of all the players after suffering their first loss of the tournament against Amateurs FYR Macedonia on Thursday night.
He said: “I think after Monday’s performance, we kind of underestimated Macedonia and you can’t do that in this competition, you never know what you’re up against when playing these sorts of sides.
“But to go and deliver a performance like that was fantastic – Greece were devastated at the end, but nobody can argue with the overall result.”
Price then went onto commend the unbelievable fans and management staff, who have supported the Red Dragons throughout the tournament, as well as praising the amount of coverage it has got this time around, compared to two years ago, in San Marino.
“I think the support has been fantastic, we might have been hoping for some bigger crowds, but I can’t fault the support from the fans.
“They have been right behind us from the start of the tournament, so it does show you that the Regions Cup has a little bit more coverage now, which is of course down to the social media outreach it has got as well. But I do definitely think it has grown much bigger.
“It has been a brilliant experience, you have Rogan who is more of a motivator as well as Jimmy and Dean being a bit more tactical and then Steve (Green) is the organiser and he makes all of the final decisions.
“There are different characters out there but Steve has done a cracking job at this tournament in helping us get through to the next stage.”
(Featured image: Lewis Mitchell)
