QPR Ladies Reserves 10:0 Aylesbury
I suppose it would be fair to say we’ve been a little bit Jekyll and Hide so far this season. I missed last week due to having a bit of an accident on my bike and we lost 6:1 to Wycombe Reserves when in reality I think we all felt that would be a much closer game. The first-team also drew 1:1 with Team Bath but didn’t have a game this weekend.
Today we faced a strong looking Aylesbury side that have started the season well, so were expecting this to be a really tough match. And for the first 15-20 minutes it was, although we still managed to miss a couple of great opportunities in that time as we seemed intent on walking the ball into the net!
By the time we scored, it was still an even game, although we took over from that point and sailed into a 4:0 lead by half-time. We spoke to the players during the interval about the importance of continuing the good work they’d put in and their response was a better second-half showing including six more goals.
We changed a few things including bringing on a couple of players to see if we could take the performance to another level and try a few new things at the same time. We came away pleased with the response and I really admire how these players still show total respect to their opponents regardless of the score. We kept on playing our football in the right way with the right attitude, so it’s very encouraging to see us dishing out these strong second-half showings and that the ladies are concentrating on the job they’re here to do.
I was really pleased with our shape throughout the match and the work we did in training last week appeared to provide us with a solid base to start out with. It was certainly a match that some of the players will have learned from and we hope they can continue building on the information we’re trying to get across for the future.
We’ve also been doing a bit of fitness work with the players and that told towards the end of the game where we seemed to pin Aylesbury deep into their own half for long periods and looked the fresher of the two teams whereas they looked slightly tired and drained. There’s still many more improvements we can get out of our players in this area yet, but it was the first-time that I really felt I could see the difference and I think the players realised that themselves too.
Despite the scoreline here, Aylesbury are a decent side and I expect them to be thereabouts at the back end of the season.
Team: Syan Armstrong, Kelly Bloomquist, Melanie Randall (Alex Lupano), Nikki Crump (Stephanie Lupano), Ellie Sullivan, Chloe Julien (Sarafea Braveboy), Anita Afonso, Scarlett Hanrahan, Jade Bowley, Danielle Clare Richards (Jade Thirkettle) and Allana Ashmeil
Goals: Richards 3, Bowley, Ashmeil 3, Braveboy 2 and Afonso
