Lewes FC Women manager Nat Lawrence speaks after the Rooks beat Brighton and Hove Albion Academy to win the Sussex Challenge Cup

SussexWorld

Transcript

00:00Right Nat, well we're standing here after you've lifted the Sussex Women's

00:04Challenge Cup, for the first time I believe for Lewis since 2018, but

00:08obviously your first and a brilliant way to end the first season in charge.

00:11Yeah, yeah, yeah, like if someone had said at the beginning of the season you

00:15you know finish mid-table and then win some silverware at the end I would have

00:21yeah ripped your hand off with that I think so yeah really really pleased for

00:25the players you can I don't know if you can hear them on here but there it's

00:29been a like a long season of learning for them and they've brought into

00:34everything that we've done so I'm really really pleased for them.

00:37Absolutely and as you say it has been a difficult season at times coming down from

00:41Division 2 or Step 2 rather down to Step 3 and there has been a readjustment and

00:46as you say you know younger players they have found it a learning experience at

00:50times but presumably tonight that brings everything to completion for this season.

00:55Yeah, yeah, yeah, it's a really really nice way to end like you said we've done a lot of

01:01learning and we've had to learn really really quickly myself included you know I

01:06haven't coached it in England that long you know since I've been back so as a club as

01:14staff, as players we're yeah we're really pleased to end the season like this.

01:22And if we look a little bit at the game tonight I thought it was a really

01:26interesting tactical battle because obviously two very interesting coaches

01:30involved and then two really interesting teams both with some youth in their

01:34obviously Lewis with a bit more seniority and experience perhaps you could say it

01:39obviously the Brighton players have had experience in their division and their

01:42set up and everything but do you think it was potentially the age that told

01:45particularly in a penalty shootout?

01:48I don't know like like you said we're we're pretty young as well when you look at

01:53who you know P was our probably oldest one that took a penalty I know your M's great

01:59at saving penalties and you know it's you've seen it you've seen the best players in the

02:06world miss penalties so it's it's yeah for me it's a bit of a flip of a coin I you

02:13know probably did it help us in the end maybe but throughout the game I just

02:19thought like what a spectacle of women's football here in Sussex like to have to

02:26have us in the final we didn't find it that easy to get here which shows again

02:32the the kind of level of players that is here and then to play against the the best youth

02:37team that has incredible facilities and incredible coaching staff and and resource

02:44behind them and some of their players man they're gonna watch out for their names in

02:48the future so I think just just in terms of of being able to watch that level of

02:57women's football here is pretty impressive and I was really impressed tonight with the

03:04bravery of your tactics particularly in the first half to press Brighton so high and

03:09really go after their centre backs and their goalkeeper whenever they have possession

03:12it took presumably quite a lot of well bravery is potentially the word to do that against

03:18a team that has you know such elite technical skill yeah it was something that we wanted to

03:23try we knew that it was risky it was something we spoke about we wanted to put their their

03:29centre backs under a bit more pressure you know their centre backs are incredibly technical

03:34they were causing us different problems with their shape they've got incredibly fast technical

03:42wingers when you know that can really exploit us and it took us a little while just to you know

03:48get um get um get our right wing back uh pressing high enough and get our get our back three sliding

03:55across so yeah brave when it works stupid when it doesn't exactly and if you look at the team

04:03tonight I think everyone had a great game but particularly I think after winning three awards at um

04:09at the weekend Paula would have to be the one that you look at tonight again her standard and her levels

04:14were up there were the best yeah yeah she's um she's she's class for us like we are I feel super fortunate

04:22to be able to coach somebody like P she um she's Lewis through and through she she works so hard for the

04:29team on the field she never stops running I don't know where she finds her energy from she's she's

04:35technical we've done a lot of work this season on being a little bit more disciplined in her position

04:39um and you know if anyone was at the game at the weekend she scored a hat trick and you know you

04:45kind of started to see some of the things we're talking about then produce a bit more results for

04:51her so yeah she's she's a bit of a Lewis legend so um I thought she was incredible again today she

04:57really really drives us forward with what we want to do absolutely and another player who potentially

05:02could have won the game in normal time Leah um obviously with her background previously at Brighton it

05:08was a really interesting story there that potentially she showed Brighton a bit of what they're missing

05:12but also showed Lewis what they've gained yeah yeah absolutely I think um you know like Brighton are in

05:19a different phase to us they're they're um creating and looking at plays for for their senior team and um

05:28yeah like we're really really lucky to have players of the caliber of of Leah and you know even having

05:34live on dual signing she put one away that was then called up for offside and she had a good chance

05:40at the end and worked incredibly incredibly hard so I think you know I'm sure that Brighton would love

05:46to keep every single play that they have but to be able to still have them in a in an environment like

05:54ours and we'll still try and push them and we're pushing even for next season to have more time with

05:59them have more resource have more professionalism so if we end up you know being able to house some

06:06of those players that at this time don't quite make it into the Brighton first team then I'm happy to be

06:13that to be that club and to be that team that helps them absolutely and I was thinking during the game

06:19obviously you've only had two days since your previous game well not even to prepare for this just

06:24to recover from your last game really I mean there are positives and negatives if you look at the gap

06:29between that match and your previous match so you have had time to plan for both mk don's and this

06:34match but equally you haven't had any time to recover from game to game so what were your thoughts

06:39on that if I'm being completely real like I don't even know how that is able to happen I think it's a

06:47disservice to to the girls and to the women and to the sport we've we asked for professionalism

06:53and we we're expected to be professional and hold ourselves to a standard and we don't have a game

07:00the whole of April and then we have two and three days like it doesn't help us to prepare it doesn't

07:05help the player welfare of the of the girls it doesn't help um the care that they have it doesn't

07:11help us to prepare them tactically this is a cup final it's the cup final for the best teams in

07:18Sussex we're not treated the same as the men are and the fact that we're still talking about this in

07:242025 just from being real real like it just makes my blood boil and like the inequalities have to stop

07:34and when you see that on the field and you see how much it means to the players and how sad the

07:38brighton players work whoever makes these decisions has to gotta do better but it does make it an even

07:45more impressive achievement tonight that you rolled out the same squad as you had 48 hours earlier

07:51practically and you put in a committee performance through 95 100 minutes and you know match brighton

07:59physically and their team you train even harder on the best facilities potentially you know in this

08:04part of the world i think like i talked to them and it was it for that for me for that it was pure

08:10mentality like we talked about like when you're doing um like you're having to do running like top

08:16up running and you're doing whatever it is like 10 um 100 meters sprints or whatever and then you're on

08:23your last one and for some reason there's something in your mind in that last sprint that always gets you

08:28to go harder and stronger and faster and that was what tonight was for us it was our last win for the

08:34season and that's what they brought absolutely and the final question for you tonight now is after

08:39this game and matching yourself up against such a good team firstly what are your reflections on the

08:44season and secondly how much do you think this will help you going into next season and planning and

08:49sorting out who you're going to keep potentially who goes as well yeah yeah it's massive i think like we said

08:55reflections on the season big roller coaster big up and down um we managed to finish with more ups and

09:02downs and what we need is consistency we need consistency of players we need consistent consistency

09:07of staff we need to improve in certain areas and we need to like just really really keep fighting for

09:13the badge and what i've seen tonight has really like helped make some really firm decisions and

09:20um i suppose let me know what i was thinking before um yeah with some performances like that um

09:30like it would be silly to let some players go absolutely well thank you much for joining us nat and

09:35congratulations thank you

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