Feature Interviews, Features

Varley’s Views on Spurs

Published by Gillingham Ladies Media on September 9, 2011

Ian Varley is looking forward to renewing old acquaintances this weekend.

The firsts travel to Spurs, who were promoted from the South East Combination League last season; it will be the first time the two sides have met in nearly two seasons.

Speaking ahead of the game, Ian said: “We never did to well against them in the Combination League to be honest with you, but at least they aren’t playing at their old ground now.

“I never won there, we lost Cup finals and League games there, it will be a tough tie though and they have started alright.

“They are another London team who have a good crop of players to pick from, as soon as they got into the Premier League they were going to attract a lot of players so they will be strong. It will be a tough game but we will be going there looking to win the game.”

Tottenham Ladies have had a good start to the season picking up four points from their opening three games, so they can’t be taken lightly.

Ian added: “We are third bottom and are a point off third, it is a tight League and if you win a game then you go up a few places.

“They have started well; they beat QPR on Sunday a team that we have also beaten this season. People will look at our last two results and say we are struggling, but it is difficult when you haven’t got all your players who aren’t there or can’t make one week, it makes a lot of difference.

“We are starting to get a full squad now and once we get that then I think we will start to push on and move up the table.”

Since the start of the season there have been some high scoring games and Ian says it is a combination of defensive errors and good attacking play.

He said: “It is surprising to be honest just how many goals there have been already this season, whether it is poor defences or good attacking. We aren’t scoring enough at the minute and we know that we talked about it and we will look to put it right this week.”

After losing a game there is no better way of moving on than getting back out on the pitch and having another crack at it, something Ian agrees with.

He added: “That is the thing you get a game every week, so if you lose you just go again the next week and it is important not to dwell on it to much.

“We aren’t panicking anyway, yes we have lost our first two home games but there have been plenty of positives and there were positives on Sunday. We have just got to get more positive and consistent performances across the ninety minutes.”
Playing away from home the Gills have done better in games than at home in recent seasons and Ian believes that is down to a combination of factors.

He said: “At the moment I think we will perform better away from home because we haven’t got used to the surroundings at Chatham yet. We did better on the road last year, whether going away is something different and something new every week I don’t know. Maybe there is less pressure as well but we will go there and try and take the game to them, which we need to start doing more and if we can do that we will hopefully win the game.”