Midfielder Merrick Will feels right at home in gold and black having moved to Wolves in the summer and cannot wait to be back out on the New Bucks Head pitch this weekend as the team return to league action against Halifax.
Will has been manager Dan McNamara’s first choice for the holding midfield position since dropping down into the third tier earlier this year having played for several years in the Championship with Coventry United and London Bees, and she used that experience to help the side to another impressive performance in the FA Cup last time out, with the women’s first-team putting seven past Peterborough United.
But McNamara’s side are back in FAWNL Northern Premier Division action on Sunday as they step back out in front of their home support in Telford, with Will insisting her new fans have been the team’s ‘12th man’ so far this campaign.
On settling in at Wolves
“I’m massively settled into the club now. I think it’s probably the quickest I’ve ever settled into a club. The group of players and staff have been brilliant and it’s a really nice group to come into.
“Everyone’s been really welcoming and I settled straight in, in terms of football and the people. It’s been a really nice environment around the club, seeing people I don’t know and it’s just been a very friendly atmosphere.
“The football also helps because we’re playing the type of football that I like to play, and luckily I’ve settled in really well and I’m really enjoying it.”
— Wolves Women FC (@WolvesWomen) November 26, 2023
On progressing to the FA Cup third round
“I always love an FA Cup game, to be honest, and there’s definitely more cup competitions this year than any other team I’ve played in.
“It’s really exciting to have loads of different things to focus on really, because sometimes it is nice to take a break from the pressures of the league and how tough we know it’s going to be, so it’s just nice to play in competitions like that.
“We’re still in both the County Cup and FA Cup, and the FA Cup is obviously really exciting, it’s always exciting to see who we’ve got in the next rounds, and we’ve got that in a couple of weeks’ time, so hopefully we can move on to the next round, where the more challenging teams have already started to come into it. But we look forward to the games against higher opposition as well.”
On facing Halifax this weekend
“They’ve had very mixed results so far this season, but any team in this league is going to give us a difficult game, and as I’ve seen since I’ve come in – and as Macca [manager Dan McNamara] and other people have said – Wolves have always got this target on their back, they’re always this team to beat and have been for quite a few years now, so it’s quite a big burden to carry and you have to take this pressure.
“It sound cliché, but we do go into it the same as we go into every other game – you pay the team respect, it doesn’t matter whether that’s league or cup competitions, but we know as long as we’re doing what we’re told to do, we know we can get a result.
“In all fairness to Macca, every time he’s come up with game plans this season, they’ve worked, so we can’t argue with him.”
On playing at New Bucks Head
“It's been brilliant. The fans we’ve got are fantastic and we keep getting more through the door every week. There was a weekend recently when there was a men’s game at Molineux on the Sunday and we still managed to get a good five to six hundred, which was fantastic.
“You definitely notice their support when you’re playing, and it’s a really nice ground at Telford, a really nice pitch, and it just has that real community feel. There are some girls that I’ve coached in the area that come and watch the game because they know where it is and it’s only round the corner, so it’s been brilliant. We can always hear them and they really are our 12th man.”
