25th July 2017
Cheltenham Town Ladies began their pre-season friendly programme with a comfortable 4-0 win over South West Women’s Premier Division side Bishops Lydeard.
As a testimony to the depth in the squad manager Graham Fletcher virtually played two different 11’s in each half, swapping the team around at half time.
Cheltenham started quickly and passed the ball around very well. They put their opponents under pressure and created some good chances. A defensive error presented last season’s top scorer, Ella Hitchcox with a simple finish to put the home side ahead.
The home side continued to dominate, and should have doubled their lead, but debutant Holly Kay effort was brilliantly saved by the Lydeard keeper. Eventually, Cheltenham did score a second with another debutant Ellie Briscoe scoring with a spectacular shot from 20 yards.
The Cheltenham side, completely changed at half time, as the Manager wanted to use the game, not only for team shape, but also fitness.
Again, the home side were completely on top, with one of last season’s top performers Holly Rogers looking sharp up front. And it was Rogers who scored the third goal, turning in a cross at the near post. She would eventually find the net score four times, with two more spectacular finishes, only to see them all ruled out for offside. Another of last season’s crop of youngsters, Yas Francis, tapped in the the 4th.
After the game manager Graham Fletcher was pleased with the performance: “We had seven debutants playing today, add that to the players from last season, and we looked really strong today, not only as a team, but individually as well.
“Training has been going well, the team have been working hard, and although today was all about them getting to know each other, and for fitness, I was really pleased with our performance We have things to work on, but there’s a lot of pre season games coming up to fine tune the team.”
Attendance: 30.
Next game: Sunday 30th July, Cardiff City Dev, 2:00pm – Petersfield Park
