The hallowed turfs of Mapledurham Playing Fields will once again play host to the Vitality Women’s FA Cup as Liam Prout and his Caversham United squad welcome Camden & Islington United to Berkshire in the First Round Qualifying when they kick off their 2023/24 campaign in the competition on Sunday 10th of September.
The Goats will ply their trade in the competition for the third season; beginning their journey initially in the Thames Valley Counties Football League before promotion saw them move to the Southern Region Women’s Football League in the 2022/23 season. Whilst the Camdi were promoted into Division One North of the London & South East Regional Women’s Football League at the end of the 2022/23 season and will therefore make their cup debut against Caversham.
Liam Prout, manager
Liam is new to The Goats but it’s not his first Vitality FA Cup encounter as he comes from fellow Berkshire side Woodley United, “last season and we played Brentford in the First Round Qualifying but lost 4-3″. The women’s edition of the cup enters its fifth decade of existence and is rightly considered a prestigious affair with Liam considering it a brilliant opportunity to “bring us up against teams we wouldn’t normally get the chance to play, it also gives a good chance to see where we are with other Tier 6 teams in other regional leagues”.
On the topic of preparation going into the tie, “we look to go into every game with same way, whether it League or Cup, we want to try win them”, Camden & Islington are debuting in the competition having never faced Caversham previously either and Liam looks to acknowledge that fact, “we know there are stronger teams in both but we also know that at this level anyone can win on there day.”
Whilst we’re not expecting Liam to give away any trade secrets he did say we should hopefully expect goals as “we like to try play fast passing football, try to keep it a simple passing game let the ball do the hard work”.
Caversham’s previous FA journeys
2021/22
Caversham United 3-1 Warminster Town (Rosie Page-Smith, Freya Jenkins, Holly Swan)
Eversley & California 2-4 Caversham United (Caitlin Levy, Freya Jenkins, Holly Swan, Freya Jenkins)
Queens Park Rangers 4-0 Caversham United
2022/23
Caversham United 1-3 Eversley & California (Sumayah Zayadi)
Kick off is at 2pm. Mapledurham Recreation Ground, Upper Woodcote Road, Mapledurham, Reading RG4 7LD.
