Feature Interviews, Features
Varley: We need to be Professional
Published by Gillingham Ladies Media on November 20, 2010
The Ladies begin their defence of the Kent Cup in the new look format on Sunday afternoon as they take on London Corinthians.
The new look competition means that the Gills now take on Corinthians in the quarter finals, should they beat them they could face Millwall in the semi-finals.
Manager Ian Varley wants to defend the title that he won as a manager for the first time last year, talking ahead of the game, he said: “That has to be the aim every season we compete in it.
“This Club should be winning it year in year out and that’s what we aim to do. I have said it before that ours is one of the most difficult county cups as for some unknown reason London Clubs, Millwall and Charlton are in it. Having said that we should be winning it and winning it comfortably.”
Despite London Corinthians being in the South East Counties Premier Division Ian is not taking the win for granted.
He added: “Personally I never take anyone lightly and I’ve prepared the team exactly as I would for any League game. I know a bit about them and they have some good players. They have a young striker called Kathy Long who we’ll have to keep an eye on as well as some others. We’ll make a few changes but I’ll still be putting out a strong team.
“We need to make sure we are professional and do the job properly. Anything can happen in football and I will be reminding the girls that on Sunday.”
The Gills have been left without a game for two weeks due to postponements but the manager believes the Chelsea game was at the ideal time.
“Yeah we were quite lucky the Chelsea game came at a time when games had been called and we’ve continued to train hard and the girls look sharp. There’s a great buzz in the camp and a belief that we can really kick our season on now” said Ian.
With the weather starting to take a turn for the worse Ian is already preparing for games being called off.
He revealed: “You can only do so much in training and I am prepared for games being called off which means we will be able to get friendlies against teams to keep our match fitness up. Everyone knows this time of year is where games get called off and it is important we keep everyone fit and sharp.”
