Claire Rafferty is confident Chelsea have learned their lessons from last season’s heartbreaking final day and are ready to claim their maiden FA Women’s Super League title on Sunday.
The Blues sit two points clear at the top of the table and know victory against fourth-placed Sunderland Ladies in Staines will secure the double after winning the FA Cup in August.
But if they lose, a win for Manchester City against Notts County will see the trophy head north once again – just as it did last October when Liverpool snatched it on goal difference after Chelsea lost to City.
Sunderland did beat Chelsea 4-0 in July, but England international Rafferty believes her side have come on leaps and bounds since then.
“Sunderland are a bit of a bogey team for us having lost to them earlier this season,” she said.
“But we’re coming into this game in good form, we’re scoring goals and there’s no doubt we can take the title.
“We’ve watched the goals back from the 4-0 defeat and I don’t think we could play that badly again.
“We’re using it as another tool to not let it happen again.”
The defender believes the senior players in the team will have been the difference if Chelsea do win the title.
“The experience in our team is priceless, you have to take that and use it and we have,” she said.
“We’ve got Katie Chapman, Gilly Flaherty, Niamh Fahey and Hedvig Lindahl who are all very experienced.
“When it gets tough, they’re the kind of people who you can always rely on. I look round and see them and it makes me take a sigh of relief.”
Chelsea know a draw could be enough to win the title if Manchester City don’t beat Notts County by more than three goals, but Rafferty does not want to rely on other teams.
“We’re not going to worry about the score in the Manchester City game,” she added.
“I don’t even know when their match is, if it is at the same time as our game. We need to win, end of story, the City score is massively irrelevant.
“If we don’t win, I’m not even thinking about it, it would be awfully unjust.”
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Feature image courtesy of FATV, via Youtube, with thanks
