Aberdeen Women co-manager Emma Hunter says her side know to expect a “determined” Spartans when they play each other on Sunday.
The Dons travel to Ainslie Park for their first SWPL 1 game in three weeks, after the international break and death of Queen Elizabeth II postponed fixtures.
Hunter and Gavin Beith’s side travel to Edinburgh in search of their first win, having only picked up one point from their first four league games.
Aberdeen played Spartans four times last season in all competitions. They each won a game – with the Dons prevailing in the Scottish Cup – and drew two fixtures.
‘We know exactly what it’s going to be’
Hunter believes taking on Spartans this weekend is an opportune game to pick up three points, as her side are more than prepared for what they will come up against.
But she admits the Dons must match what Spartans bring to the mentality table, if they’re to be in with a chance of returning to Aberdeen with their first win.
Hunter said: “Spartans is always a really interesting game. If you look at their results this season and last, they’re a really difficult team to break down and often draw games.
“They’re determined, really fit and well drilled, and I don’t think they’d mind me saying this, but technically they don’t have the best players.
“They have really good players and a few youth internationalists, but they’re a team that has got a real team spirit about them – and that’s what makes it difficult to play against.
“Teams don’t score a lot of goals against them, but equally, they don’t score a huge amount of goals either. But anytime we’ve played them – it’s never been boring!
“You know you’re always going to come up against a determined team. You’re not going to get as many chances as you would against some of the other teams.
“We know exactly what it’s going to be – it’s going to be a very tight game. We just need to make sure we hold our nerve and match their energy and togetherness.”
A win at Ainslie Park could inspire a run of form
The Aberdeen co-manager believes her side have the attacking capabilities to make life difficult for Spartans, but says they will need to sharpen up defensively.
Hunter added: “If we can match their energy and their determination, I think we can be a bigger threat in front of goal.
“We’re a team that are capable of scoring goals, but we’re not hiding the fact we’ve conceded quite a few, too.
“And that’s something that we’re trying to work on and trying to instil in the team – is to shut up shop and make sure we don’t concede, then go up the other end and score.
“If we can do that then I think we can get the victory on Sunday, but there’s no denying if we don’t match Spartans’ determined attitude, then it’ll be a difficult day down there.”
Hunter reckons a win would help to ignite Aberdeen’s campaign, as she compared their current run to their route to last season’s fifth-place finish in SWPL 1.
She explained: “SWPL 1 is a strange league. We learnt that last season, but even more so this season.
“With more teams in the league now, there’s going to be a lot more teams taking points off each other, so it’ll be really interesting how things shape up.
“At the start of last season, we were sitting second-bottom and people were thinking we’d end up in a relegation battle, but we turned things around and finished fifth.
“The table can change so drastically after just one round of fixtures and three points would put us right back in the mix.
“After we play Spartans, we’ve got Celtic at home, where we’ll be looking to put in a really solid, strong performance.
“But after Celtic, we know we’ve got a really good run of games that will hopefully see us pick up points and gain some momentum.”
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