Cankovic: We can compete against top teams

Midfielder Jelena Cankovic reflects on this first half of the season as Albion prepare for their return to action on Saturday.

Heather Miller

2025-01-07T06:00+00:00

Jelena Cancovic believes there is more to come from her and the team in the second half of the season.

Albion's Serbian midfielder Jelena Cancovic assesses the first half of the season and looks ahead to a busy few weeks for the WFT.

How did it feel scoring your first goal for the club – and against your former team?

Obviously I played for Chelsea, but it was a game like any other. I want to win every game I play with this team. Obviously if I can contribute that's even better, but I'm really, really happy – first of all with the performance, if not the result, and also because I scored my first goal for the club. Hopefully there are more to come.

It's been a bit stop-start for you with injuries since you signed, but you’ve shown your class when you have played. What’s your own assessment?

It’s been a really hard start for me. It’s not nice when you have injuries, but I’m coming back from that now and feeling stronger. I’ve not been able to contribute and help the team as much as I would have liked, but that’s in the past now. It always takes time to build new relationships within the team and obviously when you're injured you miss out on that time. So I'm really focused on building these relationships with my teammates and making these important connections on the pitch. Obviously, with more game time and with more training with the team these things start to fall into place. I’m in a good space and want to contribute more as the season progresses.

Jelena Cancovic celebrates her goal against Chelsea last month. 📷 by Kyle Hemsley.

It's been our best start to a WSL season – what’s your assessment so far?

I'm still quite new here, but I can really feel that the team is growing. We’re on our own path and that’s what we focus on, what we all work towards. We’re halfway through the season and we haven’t achieved anything yet, but I think the team is quite positive that we can achieve big things. The most important thing is to take it game by game and not be satisfied. Yes, we’ve done well to this point, but we strive for more and that's the feeling we have in the dressing room. We all believe in ourselves and we focus on that.

The style of play has also been pleasing to watch under Dario. How have you found it?

The coaching staff give us a lot of confidence in what we do. We want to have the ball, we want to be on the front foot and we want to press high. It's something we’re still working on, to believe in what we can do. When you add that character we have in the team, which we showed against Chelsea, then all the signs are positive.

Albion return to action on Saturday when we entertain Durham in the fourth round of the Adobe Women's FA Cup, kick off 12.30pm at the Broadfield Stadium. For tickets click here.