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Special’s Corner: It’s great to be playing again
Published by Gillingham Ladies Media on January 24, 2010
Introducing Gillingham Ladies Reserves’ Leanne Stevens, who will keep us up to date with the latest news from the ressies this season. Kicking things off, the player known as “Special” gives us her players-eye view of the ressies 4-1 away win at Gravesham Ladies this weekend.
Well it was great to finally get back to playing football again! You never know how it’s going to go after such a long break but I think the girls will be happy with their performance today.
This was the first time we had met this season apart from a friendly pre-season which saw Gills comfortably win 7-1. We started off in sluggish fashion, letting Gravesham push into our half, but they were unable to finish any chances they had.
After about 15 minutes we started playing the kind of football we’re known for. We had the ball on the floor and were stringing some great passes from defence to attack and creating some good chances.
It was Kylie Overton, who has scored about eight goals in the last three games, who opened the scoreline. She got the ball on the edge of the box ,cut in on her right and bent the ball into the left hand corner to make it 1-0.
Gravesham seemed to respond to this by putting more pressure on us but I must say well done to our defence today who did a great job keeping them out. Kerry Scott was solid at the back and played some great balls through to the midfield throughout the game.
Kim Bolden gave up her captaincy today and gave it to Sammy Lester for the day as she used to play for Gravesham. Sammy plays at centre bacck and I think she did a sterling job leading the team today. Our second goal came around the half hour mark when Anelle Massey made a good run with the ball and struck it from around 20 yards. Fortunately for us it took a deflection and her hard work was rewarded with a goal.
Around the 40th minute Gravesham broke into our area and won a penalty. Jess Nunn made a great attempt at saving it but it was struck well and pulled the score back to 2-1 at half time.
No changes were made at the break but a few words from our coach Sean seemed to give us the boost we needed. Straight from the whistle we just set up camp in the Gravesham half, creating chance after chance, but somehow we just couldn’t find the net. Amy Russ was working non-stop in midfield and the team was really putting the pressure on our hosts. All we needed was another goal.
Lauren Harris came off for Kirsty Goodall for our first change of the day. Lauren is usually a striker, but she played on the wing today and did a great job.
With Goodall coming on we had some fresh legs and we used that to our advantage. Goodall got stuck in straight away putting in some excellent crosses, teasing the Gravesham defence. The third goal came from a set piece. I swung in a corner and Sammy Lester headed home to make it 3-1.
For our second substitution of the day Chloe Phillips came on for Hannah Corrall and caused defenders nightmares as soon as she stepped onto the pitch!
Constantly running at them with the ball, Chloe created chances and linked up well with the midfield and Kylie up front.
The fourth and final goal came from our third supersub Gemma Ridge.
She came on for Anelle Massey and could easily have claimed a hat-trick, but one shot came off the post and another went narrowly wide.
The one chance that did go in was a cracker. She took the ball down the wing and cut in around 2 players to then coolly bend it round the keeper from a very tight angle.
This seemed to finish off the game and the last few minutes we just kept possession until the final whistle. To round off a great day I got the player of the match award, too.
I would like to say well done to the entire team for a great solid performance and I hope we can use our confidence from this win to take to our game next week where we are at home to Castle Colts who held us to our only draw of the season so far when we played them at their place.
Finally, I must give a quick shout out for the first teams who were away at Castle Colts today in the Cup and they smashed them 13-0! Well done girls!
SPECIAL’S SPECIAL MOMENT
Each week I’d like to add a “Special” moment. This week my award goes to defender Kate Foster, who embarrassingly got nutmegged during the game today. It wouldn’t be so bad if she wasn’t a defender, but she’s supposed to see these things coming!
Finally, a big thank-you to our supporters today. We have missed you!