Features
Judd: It was great being back
Published by Gillingham Ladies Media on July 26, 2010
Whitney Judd was part of the side that beat Basildon on Sunday afternoon in the Reserves first pre-season friendly.
Yet the right back was just grateful to be back playing football having not played since the final day of last season.
Talking exclusively to the Ladies site, she said: “It was great being back; it felt like it was ages since we played our last game.
“It was good to win our first game to get everyone’s confidence up and for everyone to get themselves back going again after the summer.”
Whitney played right back for the whole of last season but today she played at both right back and left back and admits she enjoyed both roles.
She added: “I loved playing right back and linking up with Kirsty Goodall. Left back wasn’t too bad either and it was nice to have a change as well.
“I will definitely be fighting for right back in the next couple of weeks, I just feel better and more useful on the right. I was expecting to switch to left back as Aaron wanted to give Kimi a chance there which is fair enough.”
It was hard for the Reserves against Basildon because they had 11 players thanks to injuries and holidays.
Giving her thoughts on having just 11 players, she said: “It was really hard especially because it was our first game back.
“Chabs got injured in the second half so we were down to ten players; I thought we did well to pull a result in those circumstances. We have got to build on this now. We went there to get a win and we got it.
“Our match fitness is going to get better so you will see people putting in more towards the end of games and hopefully we will be smashing a few more goals in.”
Sunday gave the players the chance to see what it was like to have Aaron Perry as manager on the touchlines and the defender likes what she sees.
She added: “I think he is probably the best manager that I have ever had to be honest. He seems to know loads about the coaching side of things and he talks a lot from the sideline as well. Training has also been good as we are doing different things every week which is wicked.
“I can’t wait for the season to start. The standard of football is going to be brilliant and I am just looking forward to improving myself. The girls are a great bunch of girls to be playing with and know how to have banter.”