Kernowgull wrote:Didn't even cross my mind that they might be playing in this neck of the woods, so I didn't check. As much as I would like to watch the women play, the only time I'm ever in the bay is if I travel to watch the Gulls, and I cant see me travelling down on a Sunday to watch the ladies play a friendly.
We play plenty of games in the Bristol area this season, you should be able to get along to one fairly close to you. It's hardly like watching Brasil, but there're usually goals, a convivial atmosphere and a chance to oggle some pretty ladies.
Brislington on 14th September is a 5 minute drive from me. I'll be there. Doubt any of you will make the trip, but if you do let me know and I'll meet you for a beer/tea.
Beat Frome Town 4-1 today. 1-1 at HT was nothing like a fair reflection of a half which we dominated. Another goal for Sian as she finished a really neat move on the edge of a crowded penalty area. Goughy, Chambo and Sian all conspired to create a little bit of space for the latter to burst into, open her body and slot sidefooted into the far corner.
Chances came from wide areas for us, but crosses endlessly found empty space rather than a yellow head.
As has happened a couple of times recently, it was a long, straight ball which exposed our technically excellent, but not overly quick back line. It was an excellent advantage played by the referee (young lad, did well) and Frome took full advantage by releasing the striker with a ball over the top. Beth, whose starting position was ideal all game, raced out but was beaten in the foot race by the striker who poked the ball home.
Second half was a different affair. Frome improved and, for the first 15 minutes, they did well and had a sustained period of pressure. Having weathered that, Torquay got a real foothold in the game and turned the screw ever tighter the longer they played. When the breakthrough came, it was real nice. Goughy, evidently frustrated at half chances not finding their way in, took the game by the scruff of the neck and produced dancing feet just inside the box to nick past three or four opponents before lashing the ball into the roof of the net. The overwhelming emotion was relief. It had been coming.
From then on, aside from the odd breakaway keeping the home defence honest, it was all Torquay. Smudger was too quick and too good for the visiting RB and could go past her at will. However, it was the introduction of Emily for Adele (she'd played well, and was nothing more than a sacrificial lamb) that had the third goal possible. Picking up the ball midway into the Frome half, she rejected the simple line ball and chose instead to whack a 40-yard cross fielder to Natalie who took a touch, looked up, saw the keeper ever so slightly off her line and launched an absolutely perfect lob into the net. A peach and no mistake.
All Torquay now and the fourth goal, when it came with the final kick of the match, was another that was a pleasure to see.
The ball came to late sub Niamh who took one touch to control and a second to to a perfectly weighted through ball for the onrushing Goughy who did precisely as you'd expect and hammered it into the top corner.
A scoreline which did justice to our dominance for large periods.
There will be tougher tests, but if we play like we did for most of today, there's no one to fear.
That's a fair request. Smudger, Sarah Smith, the left winger with bags of pace.
Others from above:
Sian, Sian Chapman, centre forward, brown hair, little.
Goughy, Laura Gough, scores goals at a higher rate than Ronaldo and Messi combined.
Chambo, Hayley Chamberlain, tall, frighteningly blonde centre midfielder.
Beth, Beth Marshall, goalkeeper.
Emily, Emily Hannaford, a blonde version of Sian
Adele, Adele Rogers, scariest small person on Earth, played CB yesterday. If you can hear someone shouting, it's Adele.
Natalie, Natalie Warman, one half of the Warman sisters (alongside Maria), both probably destined for bigger and better things. Two VERY talented ladies
Niamh, Niamh Farrell, joined in the summer. Doesn't say much, but doesn't have to, she's really good and has a hammer of a right foot.
Randi was there, but she only comes to watch. She's undertaking a course of professional study, so she's not featuring for us this year, which is a sensible decision.
Some housekeeping: Adele was at LB, not CB as previously stated.
I'm a massive Emily fan and I'd quite like us to go at the weaker teams in the division with a 4-3-3 set up featuring Goughy just ahead of Sian and Emily. If we had a midfield three of Smudge, Crookie and a Warman, there's plenty of goals to be had. I'd trust the back 5 to keep the score down at the other end. The only disappointment of Sunday was the number of very good crosses which found empty space. A third striker goes some way to alleviating this.
Well, there was only one star of the show today, and, try as he might, it wasn't the referee.
We all remember Gazza's goal for England against Scotland. Well today I saw something visually similar. Unusually for us, it was a long, straight ball up to Goughy who was with a deep sitting CB. With her first touch, she flicked the ball over the head of the defender and got goal side. Two touches to stride forward and one to fire the ball into the corner of the net. An absolutely brilliant goal.
Two nil followed in penalty fashion when who else but Goughy was tripped innocuously in the box. The decision to give the penalty was clearly correct. The decision to book the defender for her part in the whole sorry affair wasn't and it signalled the start of a VERY uncharacteristically poor game for the referee I have previously described as my personal favourite. Regardless, Chambo stepped up (because Crookie was on the bench) and slotted the ball past the keeper from 12 yards for 2-0.
3-0 came less than a minute later. Another collectors item, a headed goal. That girl again was on the end of it, but it was all down to the cross from the right wing (I THINK it was a Warman, but I could be wrong). The cross was magnificent. Head high the whole way, powerful, curling and perfectly aimed straight for Goughy's forehead. All (sorry, """"All"""") that was left to do was steer the ball into the corner of the net form 6 yards. A delightful goal.
HT came without too much further incident. It was 35 minutes before Beth made her first save, but that did signal the beginning of a much improved spell for the Flyers, in which they posed little threat, but were at least able to get out of their own half.
The second half was a little disappointing in terms of quality. We seemed to lose our ability to retain the ball. Perhaps because the Downenders had upped their work-rate, but we certainly had enough at our best to deal with anything they had to offer. As it was, it was more even in the second half, but it was Torquay who scored the first goal. Finally, after not fewer than 4 braces, Goughy finally got her hat-trick when she beat the offside trap and streaked through to roll the ball calmly past the advancing keeper and into the far corner. That really should have been that, but the referee had other ideas.
It was shortly thereafter that one of theirs went in really hard in the middle of the park. It was a needlessly and unexpectedly aggressive dive from the visitor who got nowhere near the ball. On the viewing I had, it was a crap challenge which could well have been worthy of a red card. A yellow was all that was forthcoming. Fair enough on its own, but combined with the dozen or so other really curious decisions (both for and against us) and it ended up being a bad day of the office for one of the better officials down our way.
It was 5 minutes later that the game really turned and sadly, it turned against us.
There was no danger, not really, until the ball found its way to a visiting striker in our box. Beth, horribly exposed, came out to narrow the angle. The striker, to her credit, kept her composure and also kept the ball, choosing to round the Torquay stopper rather than shoot. Sadly, Beth dived in and felled the striker. Since it was just the two of them back there, the referee was left with absolutely no option but to dismiss Beth and award the penalty. Because of the way it works in this division, Beth will be available in the league next Saturday but will be banned for the FA Cup game the week after. A crying shame, she deserves her chance after the improvement she's made over recent weeks.
Charlie Maling took the gloves and immediately had to pick the ball out of the back of her net. 4-1 and 15 minutes to survive with a very second choice keeper in net. Torquay attempted to slow the game and play for time, which really isn't in their nature. I did my bit by retrieving the ball as slowly as any man has ever managed, but even my efforts weren't enough to prevent the Flyers picking up a second goal. In fairness to them, it was a thing of beauty. A ball played down the right wing, which the winger allowed to run across her body, deftly getting in behind her marker. From there, it was a battle of pace and power which the tall and athletic striker was always likely to win. She did, but what followed was as special as anything TULFC had produced. A finish from the corner of the 18-yard area which flew at supersonic speed right into the top corner was quite incredible and belied the relative lack of ability demonstrated by the visiotrs over the course of the afternoon.
Fortunately, with the help (sometimes) of the referee giving a series of increasingly odd decisions, as well as rightly turning down wholly unmerited penalty appeal for handball, when our defender was clearly struck by the ball, but on her back as she dived to block a cross, we managed to see out the match without too much trouble.
So, a 4-2 win which didn't really do justice to our dominance in the first half but was probably a fair reflection on our lack of cutting edge in the second. Still, a win is a win and that's what we got. On to next Sunday, away to Bridgewater. It's not far and will probably be a pretty good game. If you've got nothing to do...
Sunday, family fun day, Bovey Tracey FC. Loadsa fun, loadsa stuff to win, FA Cup match at 1300 against Swindon. Come along if you can, it's sure to be fun and it'll help you get over our totally dominant, but ultimately fruitless trip to Barrow or Histon or whichever other nobodies we're due to struggle against this week.
What with being 3000 miles away and all I've never seen our ladies play, all I ever know about them is what I read on these here Interwebs. And when last week I read that we would in the FA Cup be playing opposition from a higher league and that we'd be doing so without even having an actual goalkeeper available I feared the worst. I really thought our team was in for quite a battering. But it appears I severely underestimated our ladies as by all Interwebs accounts they put in a quite excellent, and quite brave, performance in a 4-2 defeat yesterday. With our men's side being rather frustrating at the moment it's good to see we have one Torquay United squad which is having great success and always does us proud. I've said in jest before that I was going to start considering Torquay United to be a women's soccer club which just happens to have a men's team attached to it rather than the other way around. There may come a point when I'm saying that not at all in jest.
As an aside regarding the goalkeeper situation yesterday is there no mechanism to bring other players into the squad in case of emergency at that level? If our keeper picks up a long-term injury are we just screwed or can we actually do something about it?
Hi Njgull, The ladies put in a fantastic performance yesterday full of character & pride.
I did try to sign a goalkeeper from Yeovil Town just to play the one off game, but in fairness and rightfully so the problem with any player playing yesterday is that would cup tie them for future rounds and as it's a specialist position it's understandable no one would want to cup tie their keeper.
I might make an attempt to see one or two of the matches away but although they list them as away to Gloucester City for example. that does not tell me where they are being played. so where can I find out where the fixtures are being played. There is no way on earth. that Gloucester City ladies will be playing at Whaddon Road.
