Farmer's Thoughts, Features

Farmer’s Thoughts on Pre-Season

Published by Gillingham Ladies Media on August 19, 2011

In her first blog of the season First team captain Danni Farmer brings up to dates on her thoughts from pre-season and the season ahead.

Pre-season has been quite a strange one really. The first game was against Arsenal, so quite an easy start. Unfortunately, we picked up the first of what would be a string of injuries, when potter rolled her ankle and tore her ligaments. That pretty much set the tone for the rest of the games.

On one Sunday we had 19 players unavailable across the two squads. Everyone knows that injuries are going to happen and little niggles will be picked up especially in pre-season, but it has actually been ridiculous. Here are a few examples, amongst a lot of others; Muggers has done herself in trying to get some calves doing spin classes; Crineoles decided to go ‘glamping’, and when it was dark trod on a nail which went half way through her foot and Jeffers fell over whilst playing in America, breaking her kneecap (she’s not even in the country!)

I think Varls was close to having a heart attack, but fingers crossed everyone should be fit for the first game of the season.

What has been a positive is the fact that with all the injuries, the gaffer has had the chance to look at a lot of other players and the youngsters that have come through the centre, have been able to get a lot more minutes than expected.

For long spells in games against National Premiership opposition, our relatively inexperienced teams have more than matched opponents, meaning that we now have a lot more competition for places, as well as greater strength in depth. This can only be a positive for Gillingham Ladies although it may cause a few headaches for the management team.

So the season starts on Sunday and there have already been some status updates saying how much players in the team are looking forward to and buzzing for the start of the season. Pre-season seems to have gone on forever, but training this week has been sharp and there’s a buzz about the place as everyone knows that points are up for grabs on Sunday.

It is important that we make a good start, and then take each game as it comes. Obviously we are all well aware of what happened last season; with everyone predicting we would be at the top end of the table, we ended up finishing second from bottom. We have been through that experience now and along with the new additions that have played in the Prem, we all understand that points are not just given to you at this level, but in fact you have to fight for each and every one, however we are all ready for the battle. I am looking forward to leading the girls out on Sunday and hopefully coming home with maximum points!