Pontypridd United captain Holly Broad believes her improving side can break into the top three soon.
The Dragons have won a lot of plaudits for their playing style this season, as they aim to build on their fifth-place finish last season.
Since James Fishlock came in at the start of the season, Ponty have been difficult to beat at times, and Broad is happy with how the manager is doing.
‘I played under him before when I was at Cyncoed and we was assistant to Fern and I really like his approach’
‘We’ve got a good group of players that have been really receptive to his style of coaching, and he’s done a good job.’
In particular under Fishlock, the defence has been very solid.
Broad, who marshals the defence expertly, is proud of what the defensive unit has achieved so far but stressed there’s always room for improvement.
‘If you look at the goal difference, prior to the TNS match, up to now we’re really happy with where we are, considering the comparison to last season’s record, we are in a good position’
‘We haven’t conceded too many goals and looking at the stats the other day we’ve only conceded one from a set piece, which is a vast improvement on last season’
‘There’s definitely things to tidy up, things to work on but we’re happy as a defensive unit.’
Going forward, the Dragons have one of the league’s most exciting talents in Liv Francis.
At the age of 16, Francis has been nothing short of superb this season, tearing defences apart. Broad has loved watching the forward grow this season.
‘She’s amazing and I’m so fortunate to be able to play with her, and I’m really excited to see where her career leads her’
‘She’s absolutely rapid, I would hate to play in defence against her! She’s a good girl off the pitch as well, she’s really got stuck into the team.’
Ponty are currently involved in a race for fourth place in the Adran Premier, and are aiming to claim a coveted place in the Championship Group.
Their main rivals for that final spot are TNS, and the Dragons were on the wrong end of a 4-0 defeat on Sunday to the Saints, a result which left many at the USW Sport Park disappointed.
‘It was really tough to take. We knew the importance of the game going into it and the fight for fourth place’
‘Unfortunately, things just didn’t work out for us on Sunday for one reason or another, but we dust ourselves off and we go again’
‘We can only do what we can do and control what we can control. On paper, we have an easier set of fixtures, but any game in this league is a tough one.’
Aberystwyth and Barry also have an outside shot of making the top four, and there’s no doubt that the competitiveness of the league has come on leaps and bounds this season.
‘There’s no easy fixture now, you don’t go into a fixture and think, it’s an easy three points for us today’
‘We’ve got to work, make sure our tactics are right, makes sure everything is done perfectly in training’
‘There’s always talk of the ‘big three’, and that upsets us, because we want to be challenging those clubs. We’ve shown this season we can compete with them; we’ve only had narrow defeats against them’
‘We’re definitely striving to be up there, and the gap is narrowing between the top and the bottom.’
The Dragons also find themselves in the quarter final of the Adran Trophy, and Broad is hoping her side can get to the very end of that competition.
‘At the start of the season we set targets, and one of them was to reach the final of a cup. We’ve got the quarter finals this weekend of the Adran Trophy against TNS again, so getting to the final of that would be great.’
Pontypridd will next be in action away to TNS on Sunday September 15th in the quarter final of the Adran Trophy.
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