After securing an important three points over Hamilton Accies last Sunday, Aberdeen Women return to the Balmoral Stadium on Sunday where they take on Hearts. Goals from Hannah Stewart and Bayley Hutchison gave The Dons all three points last weekend. Aberdeen and Hearts met earlier on in the season at the Oriam with the home side running out 3-0 winners. Going into this weekend games, The Dons are in ninth position, with Hearts in fourth place.

Academy Director Gavin Levey looks ahead to the game:

“I am really happy with the win over Hamilton. You could hear in the changing room after the game as well what it meant to the players. Walking into the tunnel you could here the music blasting and the atmosphere in there was really good. They knew that they deserved that performance and the three points.

“It was a big game, there was no getting away from that, but the girls trained well all week. It was not a case of dressing it up as a pressure game. My job is to get a sense of their mood so I can get the best out of the players. Taking the edge off the outcome was important. Trying to focus more on the preparation and once that work had been done, just go out and enjoy the game.

“They thoroughly enjoyed it on the day and got the outcome they wanted.”

Putting the work on the training pitch, into games.

“The foundations are good here. They have not achieved what they have achieved over recent years without being coached well, and without having some success. For me to come in, and with the other staff, it is a case of building on what is there already and trying to add to it.

“My coaching team, we all come to the table with different experiences, but we are all very experienced in what we have done in youth development or football in general. For us to come in, it is a pleasure to work with people who are obsessed with learning and want to get better.

“We knew where we were in the league, and if you don’t want it then you should not be here. But thankfully we are not dealing with players like that. We are working with players who want to get back to where they think they deserve to be – and that is certainly higher up that table.”

Clean Sheets

“Up until the last two games, we had only recorded one clean sheet, so credit to Annalisa, because although we have dominated possession in both games she has had to be strong and pull off some good saves. We have to remember that she is very young. She is in the Scotland youth camps and has a big future ahead of her, but our goalkeeper has been very important to the recent performances. Everyone has played their part from a defensive point of view. The players have put their bodies on the line.

“It is a youthful squad and it is important we have these young players like Annalisa stepping into the side. Even if they are not playing, they have to be ready.

Hannah Stewart

“She thoroughly deserves that goal because she has been a breath of fresh air to work with. She has worked so hard in training.

“It was really refreshing to see Hannah’s celebration. It great it was capture on TV as well with the BBC Alba cameras here. When a new manager comes in, it clears the decks for everyone to have a fresh start. Hannah has not played as much as she would have liked, and it is hard when you fall into that category because when you do get a chance to impact a game, your match fitness is maybe not up to the speed of everyone else. Hannah has really trained well and her touch and football ability is certainly there, and now her match fitness is certainly catching up now. Hannah ran her socks off, and along with a few others, it was important that we tried to get 90 minutes into them.

“Hannah is back to the form that she knows she is capable of producing.”

Hearts WFC

Hearts are having a very good season and they will certainly have taken a lot of confidence from having taken a point from their game against Rangers. Their home record is very strong for sure, I think they are undefeated, but we have got them at Cove. It is a chance for us to test their away form. We need to be on the front foot and we will see how we compete against another full-time professional team. They have invested a lot of money and resources into their women’s programme, especially this year.

“We know it will be a tough ask, but our players want to test themselves against good players and we are playing them at a good time. We go into the game confident and in good form having been undefeated in the past four games.”