Young gun Ashley Brown has boldly declared the Melbourne Victory possess the necessary firepower to upstage undefeated Canberra United in Saturday’s Westfield W-League semi-final in the national capital.
Young-gun Ashley Brown has boldly declared the Melbourne Victory possess the necessary firepower to upstage undefeated Canberra United in Saturday’s Westfield W-League semi-final in the national capital.
Victory pushed the premiers to their limit on the way to a 1-1 draw a fortnight ago and head into this weekend’s encounter high on confidence.
“We were actually 1-0 up in our last game against them which shows that we have the potential to beat them,” Brown said at the Westfield W-League Finals series launch on Monday.
“We had plenty of chances in that game, we weren’t outplayed so we just have to prove it on the day.”
“We’re the underdogs so whatever we do hopefully will be good and we might be able to break their stride.”
“We just have to stay focused, play the way we always play and just listen to (coach) Vickie (Linton) because she always knows what’s best.”
“If we do all those things hopefully we’ll be able to grab a win.”
Brown, 17, believes the experience of playing finals football last season will help the Victory’s cause.
“We’ll be more experienced this time and hopefully we won’t get too nervous like we did last time,” she said.
“We choked a little bit last year but this year it’s our second time so hopefully we’ll be able to take advantage of that.”
Canberra United striker Michelle Heyman concedes the Victory are a dangerous semi-final opponent.
“Melbourne are the next toughest team in the league, both games that we’ve played against them have been close,” the Golden Boot winner said.
“It was a draw a couple of weeks ago and then we had the 2-1 win over them (in Week 4), but they came back fighting like always.”
“They’ve got a lot of depth in their team, everyone’s just perfect around the field so it’s going to be a bit of a danger game but hopefully our girls are going to be ready for it.”
Asked to identify the main threats in the Victory line-up, Heyman singled out midfielder Kendall Fletcher.
“She’s one of the most amazing footballers that I know and I get on the field and I like watching her play, so that’s a bad thing,” Heyman said with a smile.
“But we’re both going to go for it, we both want the win so it’s going to be a really intense game.”
