Aberdeen Women winger Chloe Gover has opened up on a “tough” spell where she has struggled for game-time.
The 24-year-old had been out of Gavin Levey’s starting lineup of late, but did feature from the start in the 2-1 defeat to Hamilton Accies on Sunday.
It was Gover’s first start since the reverse fixture in April, having been named on the substitutes bench in the Dons’ last five games before the trip to New Douglas Park.
Over those five games, Gover came on as a subsitute three times.
The winger said: “It’s been a tough season. I’ve not been playing as regularly as I would like to, but it’s due to the players who have come in and done well.
“It’s that sort of environment where you’re playing for your spot, so I’ve just got to keep going at it and take my chance when I get it.
“If you’re sitting watching the game from the bench, you do start to think about what you could do to impact the game – but you’ve got to trust the players out there to get the job done.
“When I get the opportunity, I have to take it, but it’s about what the manager decides to go with.”
Gover felt effect of time on sideline
Against Accies, Gover – who started in the backline – was taken off at half-time as Levey brought on 16-year-old defender Aimee Black to account for the loss of Jess Broadrick, who was shown a straight red card after only six minutes.
In the 45 minutes she played, Gover felt she struggled to really “get into” the match.
She added: “Because I’ve not been getting minutes, it’s just been here and there, I did feel like it was tough to get into the game.
“I felt like the pace was getting away from me – the girl I was coming up against was pretty quick, so it was hard to get into it, but I felt like I did okay.”
The Dons suffered a defeat in their penultimate game this season as Lucy Sinclair and Eilidh Martin put Accies 2-0 up, before Eilidh Shore netted what proved to be a consolation effort for the Dons with 10 minutes left to play.
Aberdeen remain in ninth, despite the defeat, with 30 points. The Reds – who secured their safety last midweek – travel to Motherwell on Sunday for their final game of the season.
Gover said: “It was always going to be an uphill battle after Jess got sent off, but we did well to keep the score at 0-0 going into half-time.
“Hamilton came out and got the two goals they needed for the points to take it (relegation play-off) down to the last game for them.
“We’ll get the Hamilton game out of our heads now and just focus on Motherwell. We’ll prepare the best we can and hopefully get the win on Sunday.”
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