Ladies Earn League Debut Draw

Herne Bay Ladies vs. Ashford Ladies
League 1st September 2013

Result: Herne Bay Ladies 3 vs. Ashford Ladies 3

A new season, a new league and some new players! Our first league outing in the Kent Division 1 East was an away trip to Ashford Ladies. Ashford finished third in this league last year and today was going to be a test. We had a few players missing due to other commitments but with the new signings we were still a strong side. I think it is going to take a little time to gel as a team with the new signings but the outlook is very good, after today’s game although confident, we as a team collectively know it is going to be a hard season against some top opposition. No disrespect to the teams last year but I don’t think there will be the 16-0s or 19-1s, the games will be closer and certainly more competitive and that was shown with today’s match against Ashford.

As like every match we played last year, patients in the opening 20 minutes gave us the chance to weigh up the opposition, we had a couple of half chances but the first real chance came to Vicky Holness who calmly placed the ball past the goalkeeper to make it 1-0. From this point on we seemed to lose our passing game and started panicking on the ball, forcing the ball, over hitting, under hitting and causing our own problems. It didn’t take too long before Ashford equalised from a hopeful long ball forward. This spurred us on and finally we had some good passage of play which saw the ball go wide for a ball to be crossed into the box which Isabelle Tulett put away under the goalkeeper. Ashford had a lot of spirit and pushed on and forced us into mistakes which Ashford then capitalised with five minutes before halftime when another hopeful ball was pumped forward for the striker to slot past Breeze Handley in goal.

The halftime team talk, I let the ladies tell me what they think the problems were and to be fair to them they are now realising what and how to improve, the mistakes they make and how to rectify these, a sure sign of wanting to learn still and striving to be perfectionists. None of them were happy with their personal performances and needed to improve as individuals and as a team in the second half. The second half started brightly, but neither side had any real chances to penetrate each other’s goals, it wasn’t until the 70th minute when a through ball saw Vicky Holness go up against the Ashford keeper, but Vicky got to the ball first and scored her second by lobbing the goalkeeper from 30 yards.

As like us last season, Ashford did not like conceding and this spurred them on, we needed the next goal to settle ourselves down but it just wouldn’t happen, we hit the crossbar but this was only our other chance for the rest of the second half. Mistakes, a lack of concentration, panicking on the ball, all things that you wouldn’t normally associate with Herne Bay Ladies but it was decision making on the day that let us down. With five minutes of the game left Ashford again hit the ball forward, Emily Johnson came out, the striker then toed it over Emily, with the ball agonisingly going towards the net, Rachel Tracy tried her hardest to clear off the line, but the ball was just out of her reach. Both teams pushed on to try and find the winner but it ended up 3 all.
Although not the result we were hoping for, it was an eye opener to what this season will be like. There will be more difficult games than easy games, a price that teams pay for getting promoted. Every team will want to beat last year’s treble winning team and the Herne Bay Ladies have realised this.

If you ask any of the ladies who played today, they would be honest and say that they didn’t play well today but will push on and ensure it doesn’t happen again. We all have off days but it’s how we react from those off days that make us stronger. The positives from today’s game are that the ladies know what lies ahead of them in the coming season and I’m sure that today’s performance was a one off and will be rectified in next week’s match at home to Castle Colts.
Wining leagues doesn’t happen on the first day of the season and with 15 games to go I’m sure there will be lots of twists and turns, highs and lows, but I know that Herne Bay Ladies will be ready for anything that is thrown at them.

Today’s team; Breeze Handley, Chantelle Bleau, Rachel Tracy, Enya Lynch, Debbie Blackmore, Shona Clark, Lesley Kay, Carly Farrow, Kate Foster, Vicky Holness, Isabelle Tulett, Emily Johnson, Charlie Hayes, Elizabeth Lehan, Lauren Orton

Player of the Match: Lesley Kay