Taylor’s Prior praise and Fujino fitness update | OneFootball

Gareth Taylor believes Gracie Prior has grasped her opportunity in City’s first team with both hands.

The centre-back started and played 84 minutes for the Blues in our 2-0 FA Cup quarter-final victory over Aston Villa at the Joie Stadium on Sunday.

It represented her second straight inclusion in our first XI and seventh outing in all competitions this term after penning her maiden professional contract ahead of the campaign.

And Taylor says she’s seamlessly stepped up to senior football thanks to her dedicated work on the training ground.

“Overall I’m really pleased [with the win over Aston Villa], I think it was a solid performance,” he said.

“We dictated the play well and put performances in there that helped the team.

“Mary Fowler does really well for the goal for Bunny, a really class pass, and I thought Gracie Prior, again, is doing very well.

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“She’s a young player who has got her opportunities due to the amount of injuries we have.

“She’s come in and worked quietly in the background and got herself ready and taken her opportunity.”

Aoba Fujino was absent in our Villans triumph which was the second successive match where the Japan international hasn’t been involved following her heroics in our 2-1 win over Spurs at the start of March.

Taylor explained that the exciting forward had suffered  foot pain following the match with the Londoners and is being rested as the Club manage her minutes.

But the boss is hopeful that the issue won’t keep her on the sidelines for too long as we look to ease her back to training this week.

He added: “No [update], we’re hopefully it's nothing super serious, it’s just a loading issue with her foot.

“It’s something she’s had while she was at the Olympics with Japan.

“It hasn’t been much of an issue, but after that Tottenham game, she woke up and had severe pain and hopefully we’re looking to see her back at training this week.”