Box Hill United coach Matthew Shaw was happy for the extra week’s rest as the Women’s Knockout Cup Quarter Finals take place, and has also welcomed Emma Heckenberg back to the club.
Following their 3-0 loss to Heidelberg in the third round of the cup a couple of weeks back, Box Hill will have an enforced rest this weekend with the Women’s Premier League going on a break.
Shaw was upbeat about having the time off, allowing his embattled squad to rest and recuperate with almost half a season gone.
“It’s good. Means the weary bodies can recover,” Shaw said.
“We do have niggles, twitches, bruises, batterings. People are sore, people are tired, and so we’ll still train but not having to front up next weekend will give us a chance to recuperate a little bit.”
Box Hill will be facing the NTC U17 Girls when the WPL action returns on June 14, and they should have Emma Heckenberg fully prepared to start against the development side.
Heckenberg had spent the season so far with Monbulk Rangers, but decided to return to Box Hill on her own accord last week, and even had a 30 minute run out against Heidelberg in last Friday night’s 2-0 home loss.
Shaw was delighted by the youngster’s decision to return to the club, especially given the quality and versatility she offers to the club.
“I didn’t ask her, she’s very welcome back. She’s an excellent young player and she’s obviously been at this club before last year, she was an important part of the team, and she’ll become an important part of the team again,” he said.
“If someone who’s got good touch, who’s versatile, can defend and can attack it’s the kind of player you always want in the team and we got a few of them. We just need to link up better and work to our strengths.”
One player that won’t be available for that clash against the NTC will be Albanian international Elly Curo, who has been called up on international duty.
Curo has been played in a couple of different roles this year but hasn’t set the world on fire just yet, and Shaw admits that he needs to find the best balance to get the most out of his player when she returns.
“Elly Curo is away for a while now because she’s got Albanian national duty. So we’ll have to see, we’ll work on things in training,” he said.
“She can play in the 10, she can play in the 9, she’s an attacking player so we need to work out how to get the best out of her with the attackers, with the other personnel in the midfield working the link ups.
“That’s what we’ll try to solve at training when she’s back from the national team duty.”