In the most recent episode of our podcast series, I was able to spend some time catching up with Portsmouth‘s boss Jay Sadler and club captain Jade Bradley.
My home town club were going through one of their most successful spells of recent years when the National League Southern Division was paused and eventually curtailed. They sat in third position, unbeaten at home and will have fancied their chances of winning the league title and gaining promotion.
In the episode, we discuss a host of topics including how Jade believes that her involvement with boys football at youth level made her a better player, “I say to girls if you’ve got the chance to play with boys for as long as you can then do it because physically it will put you in good stead going forward.” Something that led Jade to a place at the Reading Academy with Fran Kirby who is arguably the player of the season so far in the WSL.
Jay told me, “I do a lot of scouting on opposition teams, I have been doing a lot on Cheltenham recently. It is difficult at the level that we are at that the footage is limited and it is a shame. There needs to be more exposure of our level and it needs to be easily accessible. The [WSL] tv deal is fantastic. I have tweeted it and I’ll shout it from the rooftops, don’t forget us and don’t forget any of the teams at the foundation. We are the reason that the top-level league is pushing off as it is. If you leave your foundations to rot then in a few years the whole thing comes tumbling down.”
We also touch on their upcoming FA Cup tie against Cheltenham Town, a match I was hoping to attend but sadly the ban on spectators will stretch to press on this occasion. Although the club is going to be screening the match live via the club’s YouTube page.
Hopefully you’ll enjoy the episode. You can find the podcast on all leading podcast providers. We encourage you to subscribe to automatically receive future episodes. If you like what you hear then be sure to share this episode and leave a review as it raises our presence within podcast lists.