The Golden Girls will host Durham Women FC at Kings Langley this Sunday (April 3, 3pm KO), looking to make it back-to-back home wins in the FA Women’s Championship.

While the Hornets narrowly lost up at Sunderland in their last fixture, it was a fantastic victory over London City Lionesses at The Vic, when the team last had home advantage.

With the 2021/22 campaign coming towards the final stages, it’s a big stretch of the season coming up. Your support is crucial, and has played a huge role throughout, so be sure to get behind the side this weekend!

Fan Guide

We’ve put together a guide for the upcoming match with all the information you’ll need ahead of your trip to Kings Langley.

We look forward to welcoming you to The Orbital Fasteners Stadium.

Views from the Joint Head Coach

While it wasn’t the result the group will have wanted last weekend, Armand Kavaja has been pleased with what he’s seen ahead of the Durham encounter.

“They’ve worked really hard this week,” he told watfordfc.com. “We’re pleased and positive with how they’ve been, especially over the last 3-4 weeks.

“They’ve only grown, but you can see that it’s hurt them a little bit [the Sunderland game] and they want to prove that they’re working hard and can also get a result this weekend.”

It’s undeniably an important time on the pitch right now. The Joint Head Coach is looking at games individually and knows exactly what needs to be done.

“We try not to let them think about it as a month or the games remaining,” explained Kavaja. “We always talk about making sure you play the match ahead of you and also playing the game not the occasion.

“We know where we’re at, we know what we’re competing for. We all know that’s a challenge but it’s important we take the games and play the teams that come up, stick to what we’ve been speaking about and our goals.

“Last game, we kind of got a bit too excited and felt we could really get at Sunderland. It’s important we stick to the game plan throughout, making sure we don’t concede goals early and staying in it, because we’re starting to score goals later on, which is really pleasing to see.”

It seems like a long time ago since Watford returned to the Championship away at Durham on the opening day. Kavaja is prepared for the challenges that they’ll bring on Sunday.

“It’s difficult to assess it from the last game, because we’re a different beast, and they’re probably a different beast as well,” he revealed. “Having looked at them a little bit, they’re obviously quite a good footballing team, the majority of the group has been together for a while.

“We must stick to what we spoke about. We need to obviously deny central areas and space in behind, then pick our moments when we can go at the opposition. We don’t have the luxury at the moment to have everybody fit and available to do what we want to do, so we have to do that and stay compact.

“They like to hit the diagonal passes or try and go in behind, so we’ve got to minimise those areas that they can hit and hopefully we can pounce on any mistakes they might make, as they are a bit expansive from what we’ve seen.”

Finally, the coaching staff know what an impact the supporters have. Kavaja is looking forward to having home comforts again.

“We’re always excited to play at home,” he said. “We get the fans there and everybody’s supporting us.

“We’ll always get a buzz, whether that’s at Vic Road or Kings Langley.”

Opposition

Durham Women were formed in 2014 as a merger between South Durham & Cestria Girls and Durham University, going on to compete in the inaugural season of WSL 2 in that same year.

Durham and Watford had identical records back in 2014, with the Wildcats narrowly pipping the Hornets to sixth with a marginally better goal difference.

That was then followed by a seventh-placed finish the following year. The fact that’s still their worst WSL 2/Championship placing to date, tells you all you need to know about how strong they’ve been since.

They were remarkably consistent over the next three full seasons, finishing in fourth every time. In recent years, they’ve managed to improve on that even further. Durham ended up in third on a points per game basis in the curtailed 2019/20 campaign, as the best defensive record in the division saw them competing right up there towards the top.

That didn’t change when things got back underway in the following season. The Wildcats were again stingy defensively, only conceding 15 goals in 20 games, the joint-best in the division. It resulted in a new record finish, as only two losses all campaign saw them end up in second place.

It appeared that they would challenge again this time around as they came flying out of the traps, winning six of their first seven games, with only Watford managing to score against them in defeat.

Things haven’t gone how Durham would have wanted after that. For the first time in a long while, they’ve been struggling to earn three points in matches on a consistent basis, only being victorious in 25 per cent of their last dozen Championship fixtures. They’ve failed to find the net in their last three and will be eager to try and put that run to an end this Sunday.

It’s a very consistent squad for the side from the North East, with numerous players having played most or all of their seasons since formation. Three of those - Beth Hepple, Sarah Wilson and Ellie Christon - have made well over 500 appearances combined.

Hepple is also their leading scorer with more than 80 goals for the club. The Golden Girls will be aware of the threats she possesses from previous meetings and will know she’ll need to be watched closely at the weekend.

Ticket Information

You can purchase tickets in advance up until two hours before kick-off via our online site.

All sales from that point onwards will be from inside the clubhouse at Kings Langley FC.

Prices are as follows: £12 adults, £5 concessions (65+, student, under-18). A £2 discount is available if you're a Watford FC Season Ticket holder.

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