Plymouth Argyle hosting Exeter City in women’s Devon derby at Home Park.

Argyle are playing Exeter in a FA Women’s National League Southern Premier Division game under floodlights at the Theatre of Greens tomorrow.

Plymouth Argyle Women’s head coach Ryan Perks hopes a large Home Park crowd will provide a ‘extra 10% to bring us over the line’ in their Devon derby against Exeter City on Wednesday (7.45pm).

It is a critical encounter for Argyle, who are now 11th out of 12 clubs in the FA Women’s National League Premier South Division, having won only one of their six matches this season. They suffered a disheartening 2-0 defeat away to Lewes in east Sussex on Sunday.

Exeter are fifth in the league, having won three and collected ten points from their first six games. They were leading Billericay Town 3-0 at St James Park on Sunday when the game was called off at halftime due to severe rain.

Perks remarked of Exeter: “I haven’t seen much of them, to be honest. We have a platform with the league that allows you to view the games back, so we have done our research on them. We have not seen them live, which is not ideal. You want to go and get a sense for how they play.

“They haven’t altered their team much since last season. They’ve gained a few players, but I don’t anticipate them to alter much from how they performed before.

“They work hard for one another. They have a number of our former players, so we know what to anticipate from somebody like Zoe (Cunningham). Sophie (Gillies) plays up front and scores goals for joy; she has speed. They have some talent around the pitch, but they also have spaces that we can exploit.

“We’ve done our homework, and that’s what we’ll be focused on and doing. I believe we have some really talented players at this football team. If we play the manner we expect, we can have a favorable outcome on Wednesday.”

Last season, Exeter was promoted from the FAWNL Division One South West to join Argyle in the country’s third division of women’s football.

Perks stated, “I believe it is fantastic for the county, as well as for women and girls’ football. We’re not too concerned about what Exeter is doing. We try to focus on ourselves, but I believe that having both teams in the league is beneficial to the advancement of female sports in the area.

The Argyle head coach said that a request had been made for the Devon derby to be played at Home Park on Saturday, but the pitch was unavailable owing to the men’s team’s current international break, therefore the Wednesday night date was selected instead.

Perks stated, “We asked for the game to be played on a weekend during the international break, but you have to play two midweek games in the league – that’s the rule – and with Exeter being the closest team, it makes logical sense that’s the game they’ve chosen for us.” The opposite fixture will also take place during the week. Hopefully, we can still gather a large crowd.

The Argyle Women’s squad was taken over by the main club this summer, having previously been administered by the Argyle Community Trust, and will play most of their games at Home Park this season. The match versus Exeter might draw one of the greatest audiences.

Perks stated, “Expectations are that we want three points, so there is a little extra pressure in that game. I believe there is more excitement about the Devon derby. We’re used to playing here now, so that should calm the jitters.

“It’s more natural; they (the players) arrive, know where to go in the changing rooms, what to anticipate on the day, and how everything is set up. “I believe they are more relaxed and comfortable here now.”

Perks hopes that playing under floodlights at the Theatre of Greens will result in a similar conclusion as the Argyle men’s 3-1 Friday night success over Luton Town at the end of September.

Perks said the following: “I think if you look at the men’s team against Luton, it’s a different sort of atmosphere on an evening game so hopefully we get the same on Wednesday night and the crowd get behind the girls and give us that extra 10 per cent to get us over the line.”

The head coach stated there was some more strain now that the women’s squad was part of the main club. He stated, “Results were not the be-all and end-all when we were under the trust. Obviously, we wanted to win every game, but it was more about progress.

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