Farmer's Thoughts, Features

Farmer’s Thoughts: A lot has changed

Published by Gillingham Ladies Media on December 1, 2011

It has been a while since my last blog and a lot has changed in the Gills Ladies camp. We seem to have the hang of picking up points in the League and are currently positioned at the right end of the table. We are sitting in 4th and have all but secured Premier League status for next season.

Last season we had a lot of potential that was never fulfilled but this season we have shown a different mentality in games and have gained points through quality mixed with a lot of grit and determination. We seem to have learnt how to grind out points and get results. The turning point was the away game at Tottenham where we were one down and having used all our substitutes, Cheeds decided to split her lip open on someone’s shin pad. She needed to get stitches, leaving us with 10 players; however we managed to pull one back and picked up a draw. I think this gave us a lot of belief and now, in many of our games we have come from behind to steal points. We love a battle these days.

Training has been really good in recent weeks and this has been a mix of a new venue, added confidence and also the impact of our new coach Crouchy (bet you can’t guess why he is called that?). We have gone down to one session a week over the winter due to the costs of hiring venues, which although is not ideal, has not really had any negative effects.

The girls are disciplined enough to do their own work in the week. Personally after training on my own in the week I am buzzing for training by Thursday and to get together with the girls for the banter and to work hard of course. Crouchy has come in a done some really good sessions and has a clear idea of how he wants us to play, and this really began to show especially in the second half of Sunday’s game. We have worked a lot on passing and possession, and also playing quickly and some of the football on Sunday was brilliant, which shows it is having a positive effect.

We have been unfortunate again with injuries this season with Muggers being out for a long period of time and also Jonesy breaking her foot in the game against Portsmouth. Everyone has missed having Muggers about the place and hopefully she will be back soon. In the game against Portsmouth nobody even knew what Jonesy had done.

She just sat down early on and had to come off with the result being a broken foot. Sometimes it’s the innocuous ones that are the worst and this was the case in this situation. Fortunately she’s now on the mend and should be back within the next few weeks. Her training clobber and general humor has been missed and although she has been at the games it has not been the same on the pitch without her.

We have gained a few fans this season via the wonderful world of Twitter and there are a couple that has been down to every home game this season. It has been a great way to advertise for us and brilliant to build links and awareness around the county. Our two main fans @sidnbern (Dan Small) and @Liam_Reggie (Liam Reggie Donovan) have surely made female football history by being the first to do the Poznan at our games every time we score.

I am not sure that two fans in a relatively empty stand have the same effect as the whole of Man City’s Stadium but we love it anyway. Gills ladies love a bit of twitter though but not as much as the gaffer. He tweets an unbelievable amount and in general, an unbelievable amount of rubbish. I suppose some of it is entertaining. He does have the most followers but I am catching him up, with my tweet to follower ratio being so much better! Varley 701:10,801(yes nearly 11,000 tweets!) Farms 408:1183 I will have so many more followers by my 10000th tweet ha!

The support we have had from our sponsors this season has been amazing. @peanuts1961 (Dave Thompson) (lol) has been down to a few games already this season and fortunately in the games he has seen we have picked up points. We have been able to do a lot more this season and I know things have been a lot less stressful behind the scenes and all the girls are very grateful.

I am especially thankful for not having to wear parachutes this season, with our amazing new kit actually fitting us. We look more professional and this has had a big impact on our season. The sponsors came down to a recent home game and got more than they bargained. With Nat (Crineoles) speaking to them after the match, Harold ran up behind her pulling down her shorts for all to see. Although I did not get to witness this, fortunately one of the girls filmed it!! Nat, not normally one to get embarrassed literally wanted the floor to open up…banter!

With only four games left in the League we are looking to finish strong and get as high up the League as possible. The cup games will all start to kick in as well, so we will look forward to some good draws against some big teams and hopefully get as far in the competitions as possible. Confidence and moral is high in the camp and everyone is determined to have a very strong finish to the season.

Follow me on twitter @danni_farmer and anyone else that I have mentioned in twitter terms xx