Charlton Athletic head coach Karen Hills says that she is super-proud of her side ahead of their final day showdown with Birmingham City at The Valley.
The Addicks will be promoted to the Barclays Women’s Super League should they avoid defeat to Blues in South East London. A loss would see Birmingham City claim promotion.
When speaking to the media ahead of the match, Charlton Athletic boss Hills said that she was extremely proud of what her players have done so far this season.
“I’m super-proud of where we currently are,” Hills said. “At the start of the season, if you’d asked me if I wanted to take it to the last game, absolutely. The players thoroughly deserve it. We are really looking forward to the game, we are excited, it’s going to be played at The Valley which makes it extra special.
“To guide this team to where it is has been a privilege and it makes me extremely proud. We are really excited and really looking forward to what will hopefully be an unbelievable day.”
Charlton Athletic could have moved three points clear at the summit last weekend if not for a late Southampton equaliser in a 2-2 draw on the South Coast. Hills said that her side responded well to that minor setback.
She said “I thought they might have had to be lifted but I probably needed to be lifted more than the players did.
“When we were 1-0 down against a very good Southampton side, we showed a lot of grit and determination to come back. To take it into injury time and Emma Bissell coming on and the first kick of the game is a game-changer taking that penalty, it was a fantastic feeling.
“We as a group have reflected on that this week and looked at what happened straight after that moment. Yes, we were disappointed to come away conceding a goal as we did but what it showed was our hunger and determination to keep going.
“In the grand scheme of things, if you look at that point, it was a huge point for us and it puts us in a really strong position.”
Opponents Birmingham City have pushed Charlton Athletic all the way and Hills is impressed by what Blues have done both on and off the pitch.
She said “Amy [Merricks] has done an unbelievable job. She’s been there a couple of seasons and the resources, the strength-in-depth, what they’ve done behind-the-scenes as a club is impressive and has been progressive. Their ambition has always been to get themselves to the top and they’ve been in and around it for the past couple of seasons.
“We’ve played them several times and we are very confident in our ability to ride out moments when we don’t have the ball as much. Their style of play is different to ours and we’ve worked on that, we know what their threats are. They’ve got a fantastic squad as well as us, so both teams are going to go into it with a full compliment trying to win that game.
“I think it will be a really fascinating game and I believe it will come down to small margins and a bit of mindset.”
Charlton Athletic’s Barclays WSL2 fixture against Birmingham City kicks-off at 3pm. Tickets remain on-sale and can be purchased by clicking here.