Features, From Behind the Goal

From Behing the Goal with Dan Small

Published by Gillingham Ladies Media on January 3, 2012

In the first of a new blog we get the views of Dan Small on the Ladies season so far from a fans point of view from behind the goal.

Dan is not just one of the Ladies number one fans alongside Liam Donovan but he is also a football coach running his own girls only training sessions.

Four Months – That’s how long I have been watching Gillingham Ladies for. Not long really, but then again long enough to learn about the dedication of the players and management to the cause. I will be honest and say I didn’t know a lot about girl’s football.

My only involvement in it up to then had been taking my daughter along to the Gillingham Girls Centre of Excellence trials in the summer and it became very clear from those of the level of skill and technique that the girls had at that young age – again being honest, I was surprised, but only because we had come across just one other girl in our U7 League the previous season.

My Daughter, Olivia, was lucky enough to get selected for the Centre of Excellence and I decided that she needed to have role models to look up to, to show her that there was somewhere she could play football when she was older if she stuck at it. It was all very well watching Rooney, Gerrard and Co on the TV but she knew that she would never play at that level so we thought about taking in some of the Gillingham Ladies games and again being honest I didn’t think that it would turn into a regular thing……got that wrong didn’t I!

It all started back in September against Colchester, through the powers of twitter (I will speak more about this forum later). My daughter got the opportunity to be team mascot for the day, and what an opportunity it was, far better than any mascot experience that is offered in boy’s football.

If anyone is reading this with a young daughter who is interested in football then being a mascot for the ladies is something that should be investigated further. The whole match day experience was superb and my daughter didn’t stop grinning for days afterwards because of the way she was treated by Ian, Danni and all the girls.

Unfortunately the result didn’t go for the girls that day losing 4-1. I do remember the Gills goal being a screaming penalty from Danni Farmer and I also remember a very physical performance by a certain Gills centre forward – Natalie Crinean. To such an extent that I remember commenting at work on the Monday of how her play reminded me of the good old fashioned English centre forwards of days gone by.

My other outstanding memory of this game was something that is taken for granted in the men’s game but just didn’t sound right in my first experience of the ladies game – the shout of “Man on”. It was one of those shouts that happened a lot in the game and every time it confused me-not in a sexist way but it just seemed out of place. Having watched a fair few ladies games now it has become natural to hear it but the very first time you hear it in a ladies game is very very odd!

Result aside, it was a great day, and as a family we quickly decided that we would take in the next home game against Millwall Lionesses.

Between games I discovered a lot of the girls, management and even other fans were on Twitter and as you do I decided to stalk each and every one of them!! – In all seriousness though, Twitter has proved to be a great medium for all connected with Gillingham Ladies to interact with the fans and the superb work that Chris and Kevin do on the website means that the fans really do feel part of the club.

At a recent training session I was asked by the parents of one of the girls that I coach if the Gillingham Ladies were approachable or whether they were some stuck up diva’s, I was very confidently able to answer that you couldn’t wish to meet a more approachable set of players and this also extends to anyone that is associated with the club (although there may be one or two diva’s amongst the males associated with the club – only kidding guys!)

It is evident from some of the tweets that the girls really do appreciate the support that they get and it would be really good if we could get some more people along to Chatham Town and get it rocking on a Sunday afternoon.

For the game against Millwall Lionesses we moved to what has now become our regular position of behind the goal and in doing so we met up with Liam Donovan.

Liam, like me, is on Twitter and had started watching Gillingham Ladies this season. We had already decided that should the girls score then we would celebrate by doing the Poznan, a celebration which Manchester City fans had been doing and consisted of the entire crowd turning their backs and bouncing up and down – it looks really good when you have the whole stand doing it at the Etihad Stadium. However, we didn’t have a whole stand behind us. We only had the two of us, so there it was; the two man Poznan was born.

Not sure that it is quite as effective as at Manchester City but we enjoy doing it! Vicky Ashton-Jones scored a brace which meant that the two man Poznan celebration was off and running. The next three games were low scoring affairs which meant that the two man Poznan was only used on two occasions, however the results meant the girls got five points from three games.

The one minor complaint that I have about the team is that they seem to save their best results for away games where they seem to score world class goals – Jonesy! – and where they seem to be able to score more than two in a game. We are hoping that this will soon be replicated at home giving us more chance to show of the two man Poznan!

I have been to every League home game since the Colchester game and the performance from the girls has improved game on game. Even in the recent defeat by Plymouth you could see a certain style of football developing which we most definitely benefit them in the long run, and with the players that they have at their disposal good things are surely just around the corner for Gillingham Ladies.

So there you have it, the first blog from a fan. If you are reading this and have twitter feel free to follow me at @sidnbern, Liam at @liam_reggie or any of the girls or management that are on there. We can also be found at every home ground behind the goal by the changing rooms, come over and say hi and if you feel like it stand with us and join in the Poznan when the girls score – it would be great to get a whole stand doing it one day.