We spoke with Queens Park Rangers midfielder Danielle Puddefoot, who captained the side that won a thrilling SSE Women’s FA Cup 2nd Round tie 4-3 at Chichester City last Sunday, January 24th.
SK: Can you begin by telling us a little of your footballing history?
DP: When I was younger, I was playing at Reading’s Academy – their Centre of Excellence – until I was 18. The last four years I was in America, then had a brief spell at Millwall in the FA WSL a couple of years ago before joining QPR.
SK: It was a testing draw wasn’t it, away to a promotion-chasing team?
DP: We knew it’d be a difficult match. They’re towards the top of their league and we’re towards the bottom of ours, so we knew it’d be a tight game. But we didn’t underestimate them. We were expecting a battle, especially with the weather conditions!
SK: Did the team respond well to going behind?
DP: After going behind to a penalty, I always believed we could get back in the game. It was a fairly early goal, so there was plenty of time to turn things around. At 1-0, it’s never game over and we showed that with our response.
SK: Did you feel in control of the tie once two goals up?
DP: At 3-1 we were comfortable. You try and see it out but they got another goal back. But even at 3-2 I never stopped believing we wouldn’t win the game. We just had to keep doing what we were doing and if we did that we’d be ok.
SK: How excited are you about a trip to tackle WSL opposition?
DP: Bristol City are an FA WSL side and a well-established club, so it’s exciting. We’ll obviously be big underdogs but it’s the FA Cup and anything can happen. We’ll go into that game preparing like we would for any other.All ima
All images by Kevin Richards
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