Winnersh 1:10 QPR Ladies Reserves
The QPR Ladies Reserves booked themselves a place in the Semi Final of the Plate after a comfortable and comprehensive victory over Winnersh.
This match raised many interesting questions and problems for us. Going into the game, we hadn’t played as much football as we would have liked and we were missing several defensive players meaning we had to mix things up a bit.
On top of that, we’ve not trained as well as we would have liked either, with training occasionally falling to the same fate as some of our games recently due to the weather problems. Therefore, some of our lot lacked a little bit of sharpness so this 90 minutes was a welcome return to football.
Preparation is key and if you don’t get that right or take it seriously enough, then it will show in your play when it matters. At times, that rustiness was evident here and we must remember that if we want to finish this season well, we’ve still got to put in the work and earn that right.
I’ve no doubt in my mind that had the players been training and playing regularly and had a proper warm up for this match, which they didn’t and that was our fault because we arrived late, then we would have won this by a far greater margin than we did.
Instead, we were a little bit sloppy in the final third where our touch or inability to make the right decision let us down. We lacked conviction and showed mercy by missing numerous opportunities in front of goal. Had this been earlier in the season we might have had a field day but I lost count of the amount of one-on-ones that we hit straight down the throat of the goalkeeper or put wide of the goal. We can’t deny that the Winnersh keeper made some outstanding saves either, because she did, and we also hit the woodwork four times too.
I thought our build up play was relatively good though. Sometimes we laboured a little bit and didn’t move it quick enough, but in matches like these, when you are in control, and when the other team are simply all out defensive, it’s hard work. When we moved with a quick tempo and a purpose, we carved them open and looked a tidy side. Occasionally we were a little bit naive with the way we dallied on the ball, but it wasn’t anything to be overly worried about as it was just a lack of experience on our part at times.
That also affected our shape a little bit too. The entire defensive line were just a tad too far forward at times and this suffocated the space and led to our players getting in each others way. That’s something we can work on in training and in games like these, we need to learn how to shift the ball from left to right and have our defensive line drop deep and provide the right depth and angles so that we can tease the opposition out and stretch the play. Doing that will allow us to find the right gaps and space to punish them.
Winnersh also came into this game with a game plan designed for damage limitation. They set their stall out to defend and that’s not something we have encountered before, so it was a good learning exercise for our team. Despite us still creating so many chances and scoring 10 goals, it was the first time I’ve seen a side at this level do anything in terms of an overall game plan and I enjoyed that, it was a new challenge. I thought they carried it out relatively well and we responded by breaking them down as best we could.
I was disappointed that we conceded though because it was a silly goal to give away and we know we can’t afford to keep gifting goals in the manner we’ve done this season. We can’t always rely on blasting the opposition out of sight, and although we were missing defenders we still have the quality to deal with problems and adapt where necessary. It’s an area we will have to work on going forward and over the summer that’s where I expect we’ll look at for next season in some detail.
We raced into a four goal lead in the opening 15 minutes, but we didn’t score again until the second-half and that wasn’t a result of taking our foot off the gas, it was more of a result of being careless and lacking a little bit of focus and that’s something we spoke to them about at half-time.
We stressed to them that we wanted to score goals through the quality of football we played and not down to individual errors they might make and the response in the second period was positive in this regard, because our goals came more from the way we played and how we opened them up.
Matches like these though are a fascinating opportunity to work on your mental focus and your ability to concentrate and keep yourself in the zone. It’s not easy when you’re clearly stronger than the opposition in all departments, but it’s a lesson that allows you to develop a ruthless approach to your play and we’ll need that if we want to progress further in this competition. I was still pleased by how we kept playing our football and despite being wasteful in front of goal, we worked hard to open them up and did get better as the match went on. The second half was once again an improvement over our first half showing and I’m pleased to see we’ve got lots in the locker in that regard.
Overall we are pleased with the win and still feel we’re looking in good shape at this point of the season. I feel that we’re still going to improve between now and the end and I was pleased the goals we did score were spread around today. Scarlett Hanharan had an excellent game and led by example and Nkechi Chuwueke had a good debut at the back and is a welcome addition to the squad. The Worster sisters played well and I was pleased with Jade Bowley’s work down the right side, both defensively and offensively.
Meanwhile, the first team beat third placed Forest Green 2:0 at their place thanks to a brace from Susannah Abbott, which was a fantastic result and keeps them at the top of the table. So well done ladies on two excellent results this weekend!
Team: Sylvia Williams, Nkechi Chukwueke, Jade Bowley, Jade Creighton, Melanie Randall, Natalie Worster (Kylie Worster), Kesleigh Danielle Long, Anita Afonso, Scarlett Hanharan, Chloe Julien, Allana Ashmeil
Subs: Kylie Worster
Goals: Ashmeil 4, Julien 2, Afonso, Danielle Long, Hanharan & Kylie Worster
