Cardiff Met forward Erin Murray says her side will bounce back next season
Cardiff City v Cardiff Met in Adran Trophy Final at SDM Glass Stadium on 12th March 2023. Credit: Perry Dobbins.
Although they did win the Adran Trophy, it has been an underwhelming season on the whole for Cardiff Met.
For a team where winning is second nature, the Archers ended the season with a sense of frustration, according to forward Erin Murray.
“As a team and a club, we hold ourselves to a high standard. We’ve been in the top two in every season since I’ve been at the club, which has been about 8-9 years.
“We always want to perform at our best, but this season I feel we’ve come up short. It’s not what we’re about, so it has been a difficult campaign for us.”
Met did retain the Adran Trophy this season and became the only team to defeat Cardiff City this season.
The game would prove to be the final game of manager Yzzy Taylor, a decision that came out of the blue for the players, especially as Taylor had done so much for the squad and the club.
“We had no idea. I don’t really know the reasoning behind her departure. She was a massive part of my experience at Met.
“I’ve known Yzzy for a while now, and I was a fresher when I came into the club. She took me under her wing, and she’s always shown confidence in me as a footballer and as a person.
“As a coach, she would bring in new drills, new techniques, she was a great coach and a great influence.
“She’s a great person, a great coach, and she will be missed massively by all of us, and I’m sure she will do an amazing job in whatever she decides to do next.”
The first game after Taylor’s departure was a 9-0 defeat to the Bluebirds, one of the heaviest defeats in the history of the Archers.
Across phase two, Met would lose every game and score only four goals. While the squad will want to forget this season in a hurry, Murray stressed they must look back and learn in time for next season.
“It’s been a really difficult period for everyone, on and off the pitch. We are a team that wants to win, every person who plays for Met knows our history and where we should be.
“This season has been a wake-up call that things need to start changing and that we need to push on and compete with Cardiff City, Swansea, and TNS.
“As much as we want to forget about phase two, we need to take it on board, learn from it and never feel like that again.”
When asked who the standout player had been this season, there was one name that Murray was keen to mention, one who was a symbol of stability throughout a tough period.
“Sophie Hancocks is the most committed player on the team.
“She’s at every training session, you’ll find her there early doing her workouts. Both on and off the field Sophie is great.
“She’s an incredible role model and everyone on the team looks up to her. When heads are down with everything going on around us, she was always there.”
Murray ended by saying that, while the team haven’t reached the lofty heights that they set themselves, the team is still strong, and that they will come back next season and compete.
“I’ve learned that we’re really resilient as a team this season. There were probably a lot of times in phase two where we could have thrown in the towel.
“We knew we couldn’t win the league, but we turned up every week, playing games, working hard in training, and the togetherness has really shown this season.”
