9th September 2019
CTLFC Res. 2
Oldland Abbotonians 2
By Ben Ware
Cam Cheal’s Reserves side started off their season with the visit of Oldland Abbotonians. A shaky start left Cheltenham panicked but an early goal from Leonie Gough (pictured), helped to settle the nerves. The young striker providing cool finish into the bottom corner on her senior level debut, when one-on-one against the rushing goalkeeper.
Abbotonians equalised after Cheltenham switched off at a freekick, leaving the goal begging. The visitors welcoming a nice finish, well into the bottom corner.
Half Time: CTLFC Res. 1-1 Old Abbotonians WFC
The second half saw a change of tactics which looked to have come to fruition when a corner was met brilliantly by the head of Jess Wadey to put Cheltenham back in front.
Cheal’s side looked to be grinding out a 2-1 win until a hit and hope shot from an Oldland’s player caught shot stopper Molly Ripley off of her line.
The game finished 2-2 and while Oldland celebrated their point, all in the red and white of Cheltenham were left bitterly disappointed.
Reactions
“I think at spells of the game today we played really well. We’ve passed the ball out from the back at every occasion and we looked good. I think the physical side of it something we’ll struggle with.
Teams will have more senior players and we’re a young side, so I think we just have to stick to how we know how to play which is to keep the football.
“I think playing at this level will help the girls massively. We got a point today, maybe should have been three. That said, I don’t think we did enough to win the game, but going into the changing room at the end, all the players looked deflated and really frustrated, probably with their own performances as well as a collective. I think that in terms of that, that is positive because they want to progress, they want to improve upon the performance, so I guess that shows where they want to go for this club and for the team as well.
“I was pleased with the things that we’ve been working on, like the high press, it’s difficult to do in a game like this when the opposition were kicking the ball long and not really playing out at all.
We’ve been working on playing out from the back, keeping hold of the ball, retaining possession, stuff like that and at times we showed that today, but at times you could tell that the opposition were more experienced in senior football than we are.
That said, I’m happy with the two goals we scored, but I think it goes back to basics in terms of the ones we conceded. The first goal was a free header that we missed and the second goal was a bit of a hit and hope from the girl and caught Molly off her line. But it’s how we bounce back now, we regroup Tuesday and we’ll assess it then.”
“Really positive today for the girls today, we rose to a number of challenges. I think the consistency of the tempo we maybe couldn’t keep to.
“I think they all did really, really well for their first game. We played a lot of preseason together but I think we need to work on a couple things in training to be consistent in that push for the title.
“A lot of stuff we work on in training is pressing the ball high, regaining possession but keeping that possession is something we really struggled with today. We’ve got a big squad and a few players not here as well, so we’ve got a lot of flexibility but we do need everyone to sing from the same hymn sheet on the pitch.”
