Bolden's Blog, Features
Bolden’s Blog: All about the fitness
Published by Gillingham Ladies Media on September 1, 2010
So season 2010/2011 is looking hot already, with an unbeaten run in pre-season, some pretty intense fitness and a new manager and assistant, Gillingham Reserves are already flying high, with hopes of continuing our success into the season.
We have had six pre-season games, a good chance for some of our signings from the C of E and local clubs to show what they have, and have been a big part in helping us to keep our unbeaten run going.
We have gained Whitney Judd from the first team, and more recently Natalie Farbrace too, who have been big characters in the team so far. We hold on to some of last season’s familiar faces in the way of Kylie Overton, Kirsty Goodall, Gemma Ridge, Lauren Harris, Kate Foster, Amy Russ, Charlotte Abbott, Anelle Massey and obviously myself. New faces to the team are Temi Opemiyan and Amy Taylor as well as Zara Clarke, Izzy Martin, Kate Cronin, Lou Jackson and Ruth Jackson all from the Centre of Excellence.
They have seen a huge change in pace this year, and were confronted, as were the rest of us in the first session back with a killer fitness session from new trainer Laura. She has been putting us through our paces for the last eight weeks, and although she has definitely not been our favourite person from time to time, most of the girls have really stuck with it and pushed themselves to the limit.
New Manager Aaron has been there with us from fairly early on, as has assistant Matt. After finally coming to terms with the amount of moaning he has to put up with by working within a ladies team, both have settled in well and have really upped the pace of training, despite our gruelling fitness regime before we are even allowed to kick a ball! First game of the friendly season saw us face Basildon away and with our new formation of 4-3-3 the girls got off to a bit of a shaky start. The fitness sessions were clearly not yet paying off, as we scraped a 2-1 victory with their goal unfortunately coming from a Gills own goal. As the new formation was not working for us, we switched back to 4-4-2 for a while, but have now begun to phase out swapping back in order to help us settle in our roles.
Our next game was against Charlton reserves, although due to the first team game being unexpectedly cancelled, a few first team faces appeared in the line-up against us. We started brightly, particularly as were on the unfamiliar surface of a 3G pitch, but were set back early on to a dubious penalty for pushing in the box. Despite going a goal down, half time was used to analyse the weak spots in our new formation, and the Gills came out fighting. With a much stronger second half performance, the Gills scored three good goals leaving Charlton very few chances to counter attack. The girls clearly revelled in the win, and it certainly proved a confidence boost at training.
Hearing of our cup draw with Yeovil, the team really started to gel, with talk of overnight stays and a true Gills style road trip! The girls then took part in a fundraising exercise at Priestfield, with many of the reserves completing a bucket collection at the Gills first home game of the season. Many loyal fans kindly dug deep to help support us, and much of the £300 raised will go towards funding our cup run. Many of them mentioned reading this blog which I was thrilled to hear, and so a special thanks goes out to them!
Kent Magpies were the next team for us to face, with assistant Matt taking control for the day, he never faltered under the pressure of keeping the winning streak going. The girls were unlucky to lose Kylie Overton early on to a poor decision by the referee; the girls had to go again with a new top three, all trying to prove they should be number one choice for the new system. Chab (Charlotte Abbott) was unlucky to miss a penalty, and Amy Russ was unlucky not to score first half with a number of long range shots. Second half saw the team pick up the pace a little, and with our hardcore fitness sessions starting to pay off, the girls banged in 6 in total.
With a much stronger focus at training about getting the new formation right, the reserves went into their first midweek fixture against Maidstone with perhaps a little too much confidence. After the firsts beat them 11-0 the week before, the reserves held a glimmer of hope that they may just try to beat this score. This confidence backfired as a defensive error, despite having several strong opportunities to score at the other end, left the team 1-0 down with a very poor all round performance. Aaron certainly gave us a piece of his mind at half time, but this had been softened by Whitney Judd’s equaliser just before the 45 minute call. With her and I both playing new ‘Wing-back’ sort of roles, we have both enjoyed the freedom of being able to get forwards and help with the attack. I have found playing on the left an additional new challenge to add to the fun, but have enjoyed settling in and finding my feet! (Particularly working out which one is my left again!!) But was very pleased to score my first accidental goal/cross of the season! Hopefully a few more of those to come this year!
We quickly moved on from Maidstone to West Ham at the weekend, who appear to be doing well in their pre-season run. A much quieter Gills stepped on to the pitch, and pressed well for the first 45 minutes, both making good chances in front of goal, and defending well at the other end. 0-0 and half time saw Aaron urging us to continue doing what we were doing but at a better pace, and straightened up a few midfield errors. With a new corner format and a renewed sense of clarity in the middle, the Gills began to look more likely to score, and did so early on, although it was ruled out as offside. Despite dropping off the pace a little near the end, the Gills passed by with a 0-0 draw, and a sense of satisfaction to have kept a clean sheet, although all were a little disappointed not to have left a mark on the score sheet.
The latest game to have tested the Gills was Malgo, a new team we knew little about. Gills started really brightly and were unlucky not to get on the score sheet early. With a strong looking formation and a much better organised midfield, the team really started to work together and were soon putting in crosses and goals all over the park. Everyone had a fair rotation in the game, many girls trailed several new positions, and despite finishing comfortably at 9-0, the girls continued to work hard right to the end. Still in good spirits the then completed a further fitness test with some box to box running. Possibly new manager Aaron’s first taste of the girls spirit, as they all completed it well and worked hard to get it done.
So with a positive pre-season behind us, and one game left before the season starts, the Gillingham Ladies Reserves are very much looking forward to the start of the season and no more gruelling fitness sessions! Although we would like to thank under muttered breath our fitness coach Laura for all her hard work, I mean all the hard work she made us do!
That’s it for now; let’s see where the season takes us!
Up the Gills!
Kimi