Thoughts from the dug out:
Well it was a disappointing afternoon in South London on Sunday as we suffered a 3-1 loss to Millwall.
Things don’t seem to be clicking for us at the moment and it’s difficult to really understand what. The levels in training are high and the squad all no what roles they have. Sadly, it just doesn’t seem to be clicking for us in the last few weeks.
It was a good start for us the first 5/10 minutes we were on top, I genuinely thought they’d be only 1 team in the game.
However, Millwall grew into the game and probably deservedly took the lead from where I was sat. A fluke corner which went directly in meant we were behind.
The 2nd goal came shortly after and a couple lapses in concentration meant we were 2 behind.
A frustrating start became even more frustrating with some of the decisions being made by the man in the middle. It felt like any form of contact by any player would result in a free kick to the opposition making yesterday’s game real stop start.
Half time came and it wasn’t the team talk I was expecting. The girls led it all were being honest about the first half performance which was not of the standard we set ourselves.
We asked them to go back to what we know and play our football. Thinking that hopefully we would get back into the game.
A quick start from us similar to the first half saw us on top. This time though it resulted in something and Emily Vaughan slotted home after a well worked team goal saw her go through 1 on 1 and put the ball past the keeper.
We felt on the sidelines this would kick us on and hopefully see the game turn around.
Annoyingly, we turned back to our first half ways and didn’t really create any more chances. Then the sucker punch another fluke like goal for the lionesses. There 19 who I felt was lucky to be on the pitch after kicking out at Shauni earlier in the game went through 1 on 1 but Jade saved the shot well however it bounced back of the 19 before a helpless Alicia couldn’t do anything to keep it out the net.
That’s how it finished 3-1 to Millwall. A result which I think reflected how each team performed. Millwall were wel organised and drilled a credit to the new management team there.
For us it’s back to the drawing board if we are to push on before the Christmas break.
I must say the leagues been at a standard I’ve never seen before with every team competing with each other making it a great advert for women’s football in South East England.
Onwards for us and Saltdean next week another tough match. Hopefully a few key faces will be back and we will get back to winning ways especially as after we will be heading into a Kent cup tie against our friends at Herne Bay.
One final thing, massive shoutout and thank you to Scott yesterday. When no one else did he volunteered to run the line and unlike most officials had a flawless display. He travels watching us week in week out and we couldn’t be more grateful to what he did yesterday.
Onwards and upwards.
See you soon,
