Club News
Varley remains positive despite defeat
Published by Gillingham Ladies Media on December 15, 2009
Speaking exclusively to the Gillingham Ladies Official Website, manager Ian Varley spoke of his disappointment at the scoreline against Barnet, but remained upbeat about his team’s chances of success this season.
“To be completely honest I can’t believe how much we dominated the game, yet we took nothing from it!” he told us.
“It’s the happiest I’ve been after we’ve lost a match because of the way we played. You could tell at the final whistle how much it meant to Barnet to beat us so that’s a real compliment to our girls and proves how much we’re developing as a team.”
Barnet won the game by four goals to one, but Gillingham dominated most of the play and proved their ability to play at the same level as the Southern Premier League leaders throughout the 90 minutes.
“I think the scoreline flattered them a bit to be honest,” Varley said.
“It’ll appear on websites and in the papers as a 4-1 result, but it’s one of the weirdest games I’ve been involved in. I thought we dominated the majority of the game, but we’ve been undone by two penalties – one that definitely was and one that perhaps wasn’t, plus we’ve given a goal away through a mistake that we didn’t cover.
“We maybe didn’t quite get the rub of the green today but I think everyone should be proud of what they’ve done. I think that Barnet proved they know how to play at that level, they know how to defend that little bit better – I didn’t see any of their players lose concentration once.
“But they weren’t exciting and didn’t really come at us with anything we couldn’t deal with, but they know how to keep possession and how to close a game out once they got ahead, and that should teach our girls a few lessons about that, which can only help us.
“But that said, if we’re going to go up, which I’m convinced we will, and if they’re top of that league, then I’m sure we’re going to do well next year.”
The difference between the two sides on the day was perhaps the greater experience in the Barnet side, who took full advantage of their opportunities when they came. Varley said his team can learn from that and use the lessons learned against Barnet to improve their consistency for the rest of the campaign.
“When we make mistakes in our league we’re very rarely punished, but if we’re playing against stronger opposition then we’ll have to concentrate 100% every single week, and it becomes a habit. In our league at the moment we can stroll through games making the odd mistake and rarely get punished for it. But playing better sides week-in, week-out will only help our players develop and improve their consistency.”
Despite the defeat, Varley and his players both recognised their achievement in matching Barnet, who look sure-fire bets for promotion to the top tier of women’s football this summer.
“Speaking to the girls in the changing room after the game we were all buzzing in there after that. OK, we lost 4-1, but it wasn’t a 4-1 game at all. If Barnet had come here, beaten us 6-0 or 7-0 and looked a class apart it might be a different story, but they certainly weren’t a class apart. I thought we had better players than them, especially going forward. It’s just that experience level that made the difference today.”
With their FA Women’s Cup hopes over this season, Varley and his team now look ahead to the remaining three competitions, with a possible treble still very much on the cards with the Gills going well in the League Cup, the Kent Cup and sitting at the top of the South East Combination League.
But the league is the main aim for Varley, who wants to see his team playing tough, competitive matches every week next season to help develop and improve his players, in whom he has the utmost belief.
“Everyone can’t wait to get promoted now and start testing ourselves at that level week-in, week-out. We’ve certainly proved we can compete at that level. We’ve just got to get that concentration level more consistent from now until the end of the season and we’ll be ready to do some damage in the division above next year.”