Features, Whit Writes
Whit Writes her first blog
Published by Gillingham Ladies Media on July 19, 2011
I’ve been at Gillingham Ladies since I was 13! I have been with the ladies team since I was 16 though. I’m now 21 years old (even though I still only look about 16!) and I’m currently playing right back for the ressies and loving every minute of it.
Every season I had been in the first team squad, until last season where I was put in the reserve team at the beginning of the campaign. At first I didn’t think it was going to be anything like it was, but it was the best season I’ve ever had at the Gills.
It started of with some good pre-season games where we could really test ourselves and see how good the team looked. We played Charlton and smashed them 3-1, from there on I knew it was going to be a good season for us. I also scored my very first ever goal in the pre-season so that gave me the confidence and determination to push on and get more goals for myself.
Our first game of the league was against Colchester. They were supposed to be the ‘best team in the league’ so everyone was a bit nervous going into the game. We started off a bit shakey then went 1-0 up… We lost Kate Foster to a very serious injury straight after that so it made everyone a bit more nervous. We scored a second goal then that settled everyone down and we went on to beat them 4-1. After the game you could see that everyone was buzzing and their confidence had shot up.
We went on to smash the first half of the season and only lost 1 game, which was to Yeovil away in the league cup. The only good thing that came out of that day was the banter on the way up there in the mini bus… This is where the ressies got their song ‘Mr Brighside’ from; now every game before we go out that is played full blast to get everyone going!
All of our league games we were winning and that meant we were flying high at the top of the league. The second half of the season was just the same as the first half… After the Christmas break we kicked on from where we had left off. The girls were scoring loads of goals, our defence was like a brick wall, training was going brilliant and everyone was just at the top of the their game.
We went into the Brighton away game knowing if we beat them the league was near enough ours for the keeping. We started of brilliantly, Youlandee (Temi) smashed in a hat-trick in the first half and we went onto beat them 4-1.
All the girls were absolutely buzzing! A few weeks later we played Millwall away and we had to win, to pick up the league. We absolutely smashed them up and won the league that day.
We had a few more games after that, then we finally got to our last home game of the season against Barnet… We won this, then as the match finished it lead to wild celebrations with lots of bubbly and water being chucked about, lots of bundling and loads of singing… It was mental and I will never forget it!!
We later went on to the Kent Women’s Plate Final against Long Lane. We had worked really hard to get there and deserved to I think as well. We went 1-0 down really early into the game and you could see everyone’s head just dropped… But a few minutes later we got our equaliser through a great header from Kg. It only took a few more minutes before we took the lead through a goal from Ky and from there on we were smashing goals in and playing very very well.
We got further goals from Russler who got 2, Youlandee got 2 and finally Les scored her final goal for Gills and she retired after that game.
There were huge celebrations after the game from the firsts and the ressies! It was a brilliant day and it just showed how close both squads are. This meant the ressies season was over and every single one of the girls should be very proud of themselves as they all played their part in a massive season.
A lot of people doubted us in that league and I’m so glad we proved all of them massively wrong throughout the season.
A few of the girls, including me, made it up to the firsts play off game where we all did ourselves proud once again.
Now pre-season has been really mad this year… It’s been very hard, but all of the girls are doing quality in it. If they’ve got the determination they can do themselves proud in this as well.
Ian is looking for a few of the girls to be joining in with the firsts now, and they will be a big miss in the ressies but we’ve got to push on and set our standards as high as we can.
Arsenal first game of the season… WOWZA!! Bring it on… Gillsssssssss!!!!
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