Features, Ian Varley

Varley’s Views ahead of Brighton

Published by Gillingham Ladies Media on August 26, 2011

The Ladies head into their first home game of the season on Sunday full of confidence.

They have every right to be confident having come from behind to beat QPR last weekend, however manager Ian Varley is keeping his sides feet on the ground.

Speaking ahead of the game against Brighton, Ian said: “It is always good to get the first big points on the board; it gives you a little bit of confidence.

“We aren’t look to far ahead now, I think we did that too much last year, we are just looking at the next game now and that is Brighton.

“If we can pick more points up or a positive result again then we just keep going from there but it was good to get the three points last week. It is always the biggest thing to get off the mark and to do it in the first game of the season helps your confidence. “

The Gills have a decent record against Brighton in the League and they will be looking to extend that this weekend at home.

Ian added: “We do alright against Brighton and I think the reason for that is because they play football as well. They are one of the few footballing teams that are in our League, if you look at others they play direct which is effective.

“To be honest sometimes we need to do that, which is what we did Sunday we changed our passing style to play direct. Brighton play football and we seem to do well against that and they had a decent start against Keynsham, we will be looking to get the three points on Sunday and that is the key thing.

“It should be a good game of football and at the end of the day that is what we want, we don’t want the long ball stuff but we need to understand there are games where we are going to have to do that. “

Last season the Ladies didn’t put back to back wins together in the League and it costs them and this season Ian is looking to put that right.

He said: “Our wins last season were a bit sporadic and it was one every other week and some weeks not even that. This season if we are not going to win games then we need positive results, so if we win one week the next week we need to back it up with a positive result. Whether that is a draw or a win, obviously we want to go for a win but if you’re not losing games then you are always accumulating points on the board.

“I don’t think we drew many last year, it was always win or bust with us and with the experience we have now got we should be able to do it. On Sunday I said to Aaron when we went one all we may take the point here because last year we would have lost, they missed and open goal a minute later and we had some luck which we didn’t last year. There is times when we have to take the points this year win or draw.”