Brighton 0:1 QPR Ladies
The weather has been playing havoc on our fixture schedule over the past couple of months and the first-team have yet to play competitively this calendar year as a result. The players have been itching to get going but have been frustrated by the amount of matches called off due to water logged or frozen pitches. Therefore, this friendly against Brighton was a welcome 90 minutes for the ladies.
Brighton are currently in the Premiership Southern division, which is one above us and where we’re hoping to be playing our football next season. I was very interested to see what the quality would be like from a team playing at a higher level and I came away with a much clearer picture and understanding of the varying levels in ladies football.
The immediate differences were obvious; they were physical, committed, competitive and tactically organised and this is from a team who are struggling in a relegation fight. Many of their players were technically good and possessed a good first-touch, and their left winger stood out like a sore thumb. A lot of teams we’ve faced have many of these attributes, but maybe not all together or in tandem for long periods during a game. The Seagulls however were very competitive for much of this match and countered particularly well, so we had to work hard for our win and in treacherous conditions too.
I felt we were the better team and controlled the play, but they still caused us plenty of problems and Emily in goal had to pull off one or two fantastic saves to deny them a goal and at other times we defended well to keep them at bay. We were guilty of missing our chances at the other end though, which were more clear cut, and should have worked their keeper harder.
Creatively and going forward, we got better as the match went on but we were a little bit short overall as we didn’t look as sharp as we have been, with the quality of our passing sometimes letting us down or our control of the ball in the final third.
It wasn’t surprising however given the lack of football and when we did knock it about well, we looked a threat and probably should have added to the solitary strike from Seun Odeniyi in the first-half. Both Susannah Abbott and Seun had further opportunities to extend the lead but it wasn’t to be and it wasn’t something that really concerned me because we played well in the second-half overall, and certainly an improvement over the first-half which wasn’t too bad.
Defensively we did a good job right across the back and in defensive midfield positions where we broke up a lot of play and made several important challenges and interceptions.
I was impressed at our desire to win despite this being a friendly match and we won many 50-50 tackles, so it was a great work out in tough conditions. All in all, a very pleasing shift with an experimental formation and blizzard conditions to contend with. It was just what we needed ahead of the league campaigning resuming this weekend.
I have no doubt had we been at the very top of our game, in terms of sharpness and physical peak, we’d have caused them many more problems and that bodes well for the future, because it means even when we’re not at that level we’re still a handful for even these sides.
Team: Emily (Jess Devoti), Ceryl Guard, Simone Dwyer, Mel Bidewell, Tammy, Suze Wylie (Camilla Ray), Amy Murphy, Susannah Abbott, Carla Williams (Hannah Curnow), Cherelle Albert (Chloe Julien), Suen Odeniyi
Subs: Jess Devoti, Camilla Ray, Hannah Curnow & Chloe Julien
Goals: Odeniyi
