Lewes FC Women manager Nat Lawrence speaks after the Rooks beat Brighton and Hove Albion Academy to win the Sussex Challenge Cup
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00:00Right Nat, well we're standing here after you've lifted the Sussex Women's
00:04Challenge Cup, for the first time I believe for Lewis since 2018, but
00:08obviously your first and a brilliant way to end the first season in charge.
00:11Yeah, yeah, yeah, like if someone had said at the beginning of the season you
00:15you know finish mid-table and then win some silverware at the end I would have
00:21yeah ripped your hand off with that I think so yeah really really pleased for
00:25the players you can I don't know if you can hear them on here but there it's
00:29been a like a long season of learning for them and they've brought into
00:34everything that we've done so I'm really really pleased for them.
00:37Absolutely and as you say it has been a difficult season at times coming down from
00:41Division 2 or Step 2 rather down to Step 3 and there has been a readjustment and
00:46as you say you know younger players they have found it a learning experience at
00:50times but presumably tonight that brings everything to completion for this season.
00:55Yeah, yeah, yeah, it's a really really nice way to end like you said we've done a lot of
01:01learning and we've had to learn really really quickly myself included you know I
01:06haven't coached it in England that long you know since I've been back so as a club as
01:14staff, as players we're yeah we're really pleased to end the season like this.
01:22And if we look a little bit at the game tonight I thought it was a really
01:26interesting tactical battle because obviously two very interesting coaches
01:30involved and then two really interesting teams both with some youth in their
01:34obviously Lewis with a bit more seniority and experience perhaps you could say it
01:39obviously the Brighton players have had experience in their division and their
01:42set up and everything but do you think it was potentially the age that told
01:45particularly in a penalty shootout?
01:48I don't know like like you said we're we're pretty young as well when you look at
01:53who you know P was our probably oldest one that took a penalty I know your M's great
01:59at saving penalties and you know it's you've seen it you've seen the best players in the
02:06world miss penalties so it's it's yeah for me it's a bit of a flip of a coin I you
02:13know probably did it help us in the end maybe but throughout the game I just
02:19thought like what a spectacle of women's football here in Sussex like to have to
02:26have us in the final we didn't find it that easy to get here which shows again
02:32the the kind of level of players that is here and then to play against the the best youth
02:37team that has incredible facilities and incredible coaching staff and and resource
02:44behind them and some of their players man they're gonna watch out for their names in
02:48the future so I think just just in terms of of being able to watch that level of
02:57women's football here is pretty impressive and I was really impressed tonight with the
03:04bravery of your tactics particularly in the first half to press Brighton so high and
03:09really go after their centre backs and their goalkeeper whenever they have possession
03:12it took presumably quite a lot of well bravery is potentially the word to do that against
03:18a team that has you know such elite technical skill yeah it was something that we wanted to
03:23try we knew that it was risky it was something we spoke about we wanted to put their their
03:29centre backs under a bit more pressure you know their centre backs are incredibly technical
03:34they were causing us different problems with their shape they've got incredibly fast technical
03:42wingers when you know that can really exploit us and it took us a little while just to you know
03:48get um get um get our right wing back uh pressing high enough and get our get our back three sliding
03:55across so yeah brave when it works stupid when it doesn't exactly and if you look at the team
04:03tonight I think everyone had a great game but particularly I think after winning three awards at um
04:09at the weekend Paula would have to be the one that you look at tonight again her standard and her levels
04:14were up there were the best yeah yeah she's um she's she's class for us like we are I feel super fortunate
04:22to be able to coach somebody like P she um she's Lewis through and through she she works so hard for the
04:29team on the field she never stops running I don't know where she finds her energy from she's she's
04:35technical we've done a lot of work this season on being a little bit more disciplined in her position
04:39um and you know if anyone was at the game at the weekend she scored a hat trick and you know you
04:45kind of started to see some of the things we're talking about then produce a bit more results for
04:51her so yeah she's she's a bit of a Lewis legend so um I thought she was incredible again today she
04:57really really drives us forward with what we want to do absolutely and another player who potentially
05:02could have won the game in normal time Leah um obviously with her background previously at Brighton it
05:08was a really interesting story there that potentially she showed Brighton a bit of what they're missing
05:12but also showed Lewis what they've gained yeah yeah absolutely I think um you know like Brighton are in
05:19a different phase to us they're they're um creating and looking at plays for for their senior team and um
05:28yeah like we're really really lucky to have players of the caliber of of Leah and you know even having
05:34live on dual signing she put one away that was then called up for offside and she had a good chance
05:40at the end and worked incredibly incredibly hard so I think you know I'm sure that Brighton would love
05:46to keep every single play that they have but to be able to still have them in a in an environment like
05:54ours and we'll still try and push them and we're pushing even for next season to have more time with
05:59them have more resource have more professionalism so if we end up you know being able to house some
06:06of those players that at this time don't quite make it into the Brighton first team then I'm happy to be
06:13that to be that club and to be that team that helps them absolutely and I was thinking during the game
06:19obviously you've only had two days since your previous game well not even to prepare for this just
06:24to recover from your last game really I mean there are positives and negatives if you look at the gap
06:29between that match and your previous match so you have had time to plan for both mk don's and this
06:34match but equally you haven't had any time to recover from game to game so what were your thoughts
06:39on that if I'm being completely real like I don't even know how that is able to happen I think it's a
06:47disservice to to the girls and to the women and to the sport we've we asked for professionalism
06:53and we we're expected to be professional and hold ourselves to a standard and we don't have a game
07:00the whole of April and then we have two and three days like it doesn't help us to prepare it doesn't
07:05help the player welfare of the of the girls it doesn't help um the care that they have it doesn't
07:11help us to prepare them tactically this is a cup final it's the cup final for the best teams in
07:18Sussex we're not treated the same as the men are and the fact that we're still talking about this in
07:242025 just from being real real like it just makes my blood boil and like the inequalities have to stop
07:34and when you see that on the field and you see how much it means to the players and how sad the
07:38brighton players work whoever makes these decisions has to gotta do better but it does make it an even
07:45more impressive achievement tonight that you rolled out the same squad as you had 48 hours earlier
07:51practically and you put in a committee performance through 95 100 minutes and you know match brighton
07:59physically and their team you train even harder on the best facilities potentially you know in this
08:04part of the world i think like i talked to them and it was it for that for me for that it was pure
08:10mentality like we talked about like when you're doing um like you're having to do running like top
08:16up running and you're doing whatever it is like 10 um 100 meters sprints or whatever and then you're on
08:23your last one and for some reason there's something in your mind in that last sprint that always gets you
08:28to go harder and stronger and faster and that was what tonight was for us it was our last win for the
08:34season and that's what they brought absolutely and the final question for you tonight now is after
08:39this game and matching yourself up against such a good team firstly what are your reflections on the
08:44season and secondly how much do you think this will help you going into next season and planning and
08:49sorting out who you're going to keep potentially who goes as well yeah yeah it's massive i think like we said
08:55reflections on the season big roller coaster big up and down um we managed to finish with more ups and
09:02downs and what we need is consistency we need consistency of players we need consistent consistency
09:07of staff we need to improve in certain areas and we need to like just really really keep fighting for
09:13the badge and what i've seen tonight has really like helped make some really firm decisions and
09:20um i suppose let me know what i was thinking before um yeah with some performances like that um
09:30like it would be silly to let some players go absolutely well thank you much for joining us nat and
09:35congratulations thank you