Bolden's Blog
Bolden’s Blog: floodlights, trains and Didier Drogba
Published by Gillingham Ladies Media on October 21, 2009
OK, so blog number three follows on from the amusement of Tuesday night’s cheating at training…
So we get to Thursday, and we are all just booting up ready for our session at Sittingbourne FC, when all of a sudden all of the floodlights go out. We stumble around in the dark wondering what freak of nature event could have caused the lights to suddenly burn out, when we realise one of our players had been trying to help a friend in need in the changing room toilets, and find her a light switch! In doing so however, she had found the main switch for all of the floodlights, and left ALL of us in darkness. By the sound of things, they never did find the loo switch either!
So training was delayed while the lights rebooted, which caused much amusement, although the mishap left the ressys training in the dark when one end did not re-power properly, creating a rather shadowy game with some rather dodgy passing!
The awkward session didn’t put us off our stride as we faced Anchorians Reserves at home on Sunday. After the pre-match quiz rather appropriately discussed the law concerning unwelcome objects affecting the run of play in light of the Liverpool game, we all went out in a far more organised manner than last week.
After much discussion caused last Sunday by the referee offering the choice to kick off at the toss, I was relieved to see that this weeks ref knew the “laws” and started the game properly! Missing Rachel Ahern this week due to illness, Sammy got to make her first start for the team back in defence.
Both teams were pretty level after ten minutes with both putting in some strong attacks. Gills took up the first goal in the next 5 minutes, with some neat play coming from all over the pitch, allowing Lauren Harris to add another strike to her ever-growing goal tally, and to put in a second soon after. Hat-trick hero Leanne Stevens put in a neat free kick bringing the score up to 3-0, with an own goal putting the Gills up 4-0 at half time.
Determined to no longer be off the score sheet, Kirsty Goodall finished a well-worked independent run, later seeing her replaced by Gemma Ridge. Annelle Massey then made way for Hannah Corrall, with Chloe Phillips stepping in for Lauren Harris. A second free kick from Leanne Stevens saw the ball hit the back of the net, with a long-range volley completing her well-earned hat-trick.
Finishing 7-0 was a good result for the girls, but I think we all agreed when we left the pitch that there was still plenty more to come from us, and that we weren’t playing to our usual pressing standard. Lets hope all of the lights work at both training sessions this week!
I must also add my apologies to Ashlee Hinks as after being so proud of myself for washing the kit so nicely, I heard at training this week that shirt number eight was still filthy! I think that one got lost at the bottom of the bag! oops!
After the last few weeks of cheating at training seven-a-side was much more even this week, with “Team Naughty” still making it to the final despite not cheating!
No action from the munchkins this weekend, but I did venture out for a few drinks in London. I have decided that chivalry is not dead, as after falling asleep on the next best last train home having already missed my train, I awoke to some random bloke banging on the window checking I didn’t need that stop. Thankfully it wasn’t my stop, but it felt good that people still cared at silly o’clock on a weekend! It was either that or they were hoping I had missed it to create a great source of amusement!
That story links in nicely with my next comment, a rather brilliant summary of Didier Drogba I found in one of the London papers my dad brought home from work…
It reads…
Didier Drogba has a beer named after him in his native Ivory Coast. The locals have apparently taken to calling large measures of Bock Lagers ‘Drogbas’ in homage to the muscle-bound Chelsea striker, whose goals have propelled them into next summer’s World Cup.
We are reliably informed that this is because Bock beer is particularly strong and robust in character, although we would like to think it’s because the brew happens to go down very easily!
Perfect!
Good Luck to both teams this weekend!
Kimi