Aberdeen Women forward Chloe Gover says her side need to match improved performances with points – starting at Motherwell on Sunday.
The Dons sit second bottom of SWPL 1 with four points after nine games, with their only victory so far being a 2-0 win against Glasgow Women last month.
That win – which was also the women’s teams’ first-ever victory at Pittodrie – was the first points that Aberdeen had picked up since a draw with Partick Thistle in August.
Around this time last year, the Reds were in the midst of a winless run that lasted six games until a 2-1 win against Hamilton Accies in December.
However, they finished the season in fifth place behind only the four full-time clubs.
Despite their current position in the table, forward Gover reckons that Aberdeen have actually played better than last season, but just haven’t been able to secure points.
She says the Dons will reflect on last season – and how they won six out of the next seven games after the losing streak – as reassurance that they can change their fortunes.
Gover said: “I think last year our performances weren’t always great, but we were able to pick up the points that we needed to in those games.
“This season I think our performances have been much better, but we’re just not getting the points, which has been difficult.
“We need to make sure that we’re seeing games out now and getting those points to move up the table, because we know we can do it.
“We look back to last year when we went on a bit of a difficult run and we managed to get out of it – so we have to remind ourselves of that.
“We’ve got games against teams around about is coming up – like this weekend at Motherwell – so we’ve got a good chance to play well and get those points.”
Building on first win of season
The Reds forward believes the Motherwell game is a good opportunity to try and start their climb up the table by securing back-to-back wins.
Gover added: “It’s a real shame that it’s been three weeks since our last league game – I feel like we were just getting started, but we’ve trained well over the break.
“This game is probably just as important as the last game against Glasgow Women because now we want to build on that first win.
“If we win this game it can set us off on a winning run, and could take us off second bottom of the table, which would be really good.
“After we won that first game at Pittodrie, you noticed a difference in training with the atmosphere – everyone seemed much happier and the intensity was much better.
“So, hopefully, we can keep that up with a win on Sunday.”
Gover’s own priority for the upcoming games is to cement her place in Aberdeen’s starting XI. She has started six out of their nine games in SWPL 1 thus far.
Once she has done that, she would like to start adding goals to her game, having scored four in the top-flight last season, including a brace against Partick Thistle.
Gover explained: “The more this season has went on and the more minutes I’ve played I feel like I’m getting more into my own game.
“I do feel like I’ve been struggling to keep myself in the team, so I just need to get myself in the squad and then take it from there.
“The next step would be looking to score more goals and help out more that way – that’s definitely something that I want to do more of.”
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