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Brighton & Hove Albion’s assistant boss Chris Roberts has confirmed that head coach Dario Vidošić will return to the dugout for Sunday’s Adobe Women’s FA Cup fifth round tie at West Ham United.
Vidošić has been absent for the last month whilst he has dealt with family matters back in Australia. Rado Vidošić, Dario’s father, sadly passed away at the end of January and the funeral recently took place.
When speaking to the media ahead of this weekend’s Adobe Women’s FA Cup fifth round tie at West Ham United, Brighton & Hove Albion’s assistant boss Roberts confirmed the return of head coach Vidošić.
“Dario has arrived back in the country today, so he will be with us for the rest of the week and back in the dugout on Sunday,” Roberts confirmed. “It’s great to have him back, the girls will get a huge boost having the boss back. Business will resume as normal.”
While Vidošić’s focus has been on his family, Roberts revealed that the 38-year-old has been in regular contact with the Brighton & Hove Albion staff and players during his time away.
He said “Even though he’s not been here, he’s still been involved and he’s been present in everything that we do. He’s not been here in person but in some aspects, he’s never taken his eye off what’s going on. It’ll be great having him back in the dugout on Sunday.”
Vidošić’s first game back is against a West Ham United side who came from two goals down to defeat Brighton & Hove Albion 3-2 in a Barclays Women’s Super League fixture just a couple of games ago. Roberts says that the team must manage key periods of the game better this time around.
He said “There were 83 minutes on the clock, we were 2-0 up and fairly comfortable. Until they scored their first goal, I felt we were very comfortable and if anything, I felt like we would get the third goal in the game.
“From a performance point of view, we knew that the game itself could have been better anyway; I don’t think we played particularly well to be 2-0 up but we did what we needed to. A couple of bizarre moments in the game let them back in it and then at 2-2, they had home advantage and the momentum and we lose the game 3-2.
“There were certainly learnings in terms of managing moments in the game, especially with seven minutes to go and being so comfortable. Letting them back in the game rather than them doing something special to get back into the game themselves, we probably let them back in the door a bit. We have to be better managing that and we’ve spoken about it.
“We are well-prepared and we’re looking forward to going back there and playing again.”
Brighton & Hove Albion’s Barclays Women’s Super League fixture at West Ham United kicks-off at 12pm on Sunday afternoon.
