Club News
Varley looking to bounce back
Published by Gillingham Ladies Media on September 16, 2009
Gillingham Ladies manager Ian Varley spoke exclusively with the Gillingham Ladies official website to share his views on the weekend defeat to Lewes, the side’s first loss of the season.
“We never really got going and two defensive errors cost us, ” Varley explained.
“Lewes are only dangerous off set pieces and the second goal we gave them was a joke.
“Other than that we dominated the game but it just didn’t go for us on the day. But that happens sometimes.
“We missed several chances and on reflection could quite easily have won the game.”
The Gills had started the season in rampant form, but despite his initial disappointment in Sunday’s defeat, Varley believes it could actually help galvanise the team for the matches to come.
“In a strange way losing will probably help us push on now. I think some of our girls needed a reality check as they have probably been thinking they can just turn up to games and win.
“Full credit to Lewes, they got ahead and used their experience. I wouldn’t say they have many influential individual players but as a team they know how to win games, especially if you gift them goals.
“Although they are up there now I wouldn’t expect them to mount a title challenge as I don’t think they have enough quality or pace in their team to consistently win games.”
After last weekend’s disappointment, Varley is now looking ahead to the challenges to come, with a home game at Ipswich Town next on the agenda.
“We have to bounce back now against Ipswich and I will be looking at making four or five changes to freshen up the team and make sure we get the three points that will keep us up there at the top of the table.
“Losing on Sunday won’t be a huge dent to our title hopes as we are still just the one point behind with a game in hand, so in that respect nothing has changed. It was just a shame we couldn’t take advantage of the other teams dropping points and give ourselves a really good advantage at the top.”
“I’m realistic enough to know that winning all 22 league games is difficult, but with 16 games remaining I would expect we would need to win at least 13 of them to be promoted. I have every confidence we can do that and hopefully we can win every game between now and the end of the season.”
