Dav Doone says confidence is sky high in the Belles’ camp after time off over the Christmas period.
The Belles finished 2019 with a draw away at league high-flyers TNS before a County Cup win at home to AFC Doncaster, and Doone says those results have seen morale lifted as the squad returned to training on Thursday.
“We’re looking to get that sharpness back into the legs after the recent break, we’ve had a nice bit of time off which has been good for both the players and staff, we’re confident they’re coming back in fine shape,” he said.
“It was good to mentally refresh over the Christmas period, though from a playing point of view, the break was at a bit of a bad time in a way as we’d hit a little bit of form, but they’re in really good spirits and look ready to go again.
“They’ve all come back in with a lot of confidence, smiles on all their faces, so now it’s all about getting to work ready for the game against Leafield on January 12 and making sure we go out to get three points there.”
The Belles good form at the end of 2019 saw them halt a string of seven defeats in a row, and after encouraging performances in December, Doone is confident that all their hard work will shine through following the turn of the year.
“They can take a lot of confidence out of the way they attacked in the last couple of games at the back end of last year, we looked dangerous going forward and created a lot of opportunities, we just need that rub of the green now,” he added.
“It’s a process that has taken a little bit longer than we might have liked to really get going, but that doesn’t deter from the hard work from earlier on in the season, we wanted a few more results to go our way, but we have that little bit of belief in us now.
“The results that we had gave us that bit of belief that we can get something from teams not just around us but higher up in the league as well, we have that bit of form so we should be heading into games with all the confidence in the world.”