Oxford City Women’s Manager Connor Walton has said that his side’s opening four fixtures of the SRWFL couldn’t have been tougher.

City start the season away at Sholing before hosting Winchester City Flyers at Court Place Farm.

A trip to recently demoted Reading will follow, before another league newcomer in Selsey travel to OX3.  

Walton said: “We’ve been drawn away to Sholing, which is a difficult start.

“Winchester Flyers is our first home game and I think we can get some points out of those two games and hopefully get the season off to a positive start.

“It’s important to get off to a positive start. If you set the tone from the first whistle, you have to make sure the standards are set and start from the get-go or you’ll be chasing.

“We want to be towards the top of the league fighting for promotion but also maintain what we had last year.

“Reading will be one of the biggest tests in the league, we don’t know much about them yet. It’ll definitely be one of the games where we’ll have to be prepared in the best way possible.

“Selsey were a National League side last year and struggled towards the end of the season, but again they’ll be wanting to bounce straight back up.”

City have also discovered their opponents in the Adobe Women’s FA Cup.

The Hoops come into the competition at the 2nd Qualifying Round stage and will host Woodley United at Court Place Farm.

The City boss admits that the draw is one of the toughest ties at this stage of the competition but says that home advantage will be important.

“If you’d have chosen a tie that you’d want to avoid you’d have probably said Woodley.

“Woodley and us were neck and neck all the way to the final match of the season and I expect the same this year.

“The good thing is that we have home advantage and we’ll be playing on a pitch that we’re used to, so hopefully our style and the way we set up will stand us in good stead.”