AFC Bournemouth
AFC Bournemouth Women’s midfielder, Elle Elkins, admitted that she can’t wait for the new season to get underway.
The 17-year-old featured regularly for Steve Cuss’ side last season, as they finished second in their maiden season in the National League.
Elkins is hoping to impress again across the 2022/23 season, which starts on Sunday, and began by speaking about the pre-season schedule her and her teammates have been through.
“Pre-season has been quite similar to last year, so it was quite hard as we expected,” she began.
“If we want to go up this season, which is definitely in our minds, we all know that we need to work hard.
“We went to Devon for a pre-season camp and we worked on what we want to set in stone. It’s just going to carry on now into pre-season and into the league.
“We have a few different players and we’re trying to adapt to each other’s games, but it has benefited us having the pre-season games.
“The matches we’ve played have been quite different in terms of the opposition, but they’ve all shown us the strengths and weaknesses we have.
"We’ve found out what we needed to work on and, if we keep on working hard, we know that we’ll be able to get there.”
Elkins continued by discussing the balance in the squad, having come through from the under-12 age group with a number of teammates.
“It’s good having a lot of girls a similar age to me here,” she continued.
“Obviously from under-12s, I was with a lot of the people that I’m here in the first team with. The more experienced players are also great because they’re just so encouraging.
“Sometimes they don’t even do it through their words, it’s their actions and obviously I want to be like them at one stage.”
AFC Bournemouth Women open their 2022/23 National League campaign at home to St Austell. Entry is free at Ringwood Town this Sunday, with kick-off at 3pm.
