Ladies' First Team - 'Liphook United Ladies'

League

Hampshire County Women's Football League, Division 4.

Home ground

Liphook Recreation Ground

Home strip

Reports

Liphook Ladies ~ Pre-season round up

The first murmurings of pre-season football were detected on manager Lynette Dunlop’s Facebook page during this summer’s Fifa World Cup. Admiration for the skills of Messi, short lived smugness at the rapid demise of the French, and of course, the compulsory parallels drawn to 1966, dare I mention the Germans? With the ever-orange Gary Lineker dominating our TV screens it seemed that everyone was keen to dust off their boots, (or in captain Caoimhe Weeks’ case, buying a new pair just to save cleaning the old ones) and get playing again. Lynette had started the countdown to the Marmite of any footballer’s existence; love it, or hate it; pre-season training was on the horizon.

Thankfully though, this football fever lasted longer than England’s participation in the world cup, and came with ample amounts of dedication and passion from both players and coaching staff. None more so than Andy Luckhurst, Gary Elcombe, and Alan Hall, who continue to offer up vast amounts of their time and expertise to coach the team. After several weeks of intense training, where initially the only sightings of a football were when the team ran past the town’s sport shop, the Ladies faced their first pre-season friendly of the summer. They made the journey to league rivals Hamble on 8^th August and were keen to put practice into practice. However, events on the pitch did not come to pass as planned. A game of two halves was abandoned in favour of 3 half hour games which were played in near tropical temperatures. The cumulative score over the three games was 6-1 and it seemed that Liphook were foiled not only by the ‘target man’ tactics from Hamble, but also their own inability to get the ball out wide. The trip was not fruitless though, as a well delivered cross from Kerri Elson was skilfully converted by player-manager Dunlop to ensure that Liphook at least made it onto the score sheet.

The focus of training over the next few sessions shifted accordingly as the team prepared for their second friendly match. This time they faced the New Forest Ladies reserve team on 22^nd August. This game saw the return of Kirsten Shaw to the Liphook starting line-up after a season long footballing mecca to her beloved Tottenham Hotspur. The 2pm kick off time came and went with only Caoimhe and Kirsten having managed to reach the ground on time. The large quantity of traffic moving through Lyndhurst was not supporters trying to get to the match as originally thought, but hundreds of aviation fans making their way to the Bournemouth Air Show. The New Forest though, would later be wishing that the reinforcements had never arrived. This game could not have been in sharper contrast to the Hamble match. For starters, it was raining, hard. But despite a rushed warm up and in marked contrast to the weather; Liphook started the game brightly. It was evident that the girls had taken on board the instructions from Gary and Alan, and it was not long before they were playing the ball out to the pacey Georgina Miron, and the skilful Helen George, who occupied the left and right wings respectively. However, it was Liphook who were to concede first when a speculative cross/shot bounced unexpectedly high over the stranded Liphook keeper Kirsty Rudman. Previous Liphook sides would have rapidly fallen apart after this initial setback, but not this team, and not this season. Katy Oliver was strong in the centre of midfield, and the back four of Fiona McCord, Georgina Luckhurst, Kayla Ford, and Rosie Miron were commanding in defence. It was not long before the Blues drew level. An attacking run from Shaw drew a foul right on the edge of the opposition’s box. Shaw took the resulting free kick, and with just the slightest hint of a back lift, found the top corner. Game on. It was not long before Liphook took the lead, Shaw adding her second, making the most of some interesting goalkeeping from the New Forest’s number one. New Forest brought the score back to 2-2 but were unable to hold Liphook to half time. A wonder goal from Weeks saw the Blues go in 3-2 up at the break. Gary, Alan, and Lynette staged a half time team talk that Carlsberg would have been proud to sponsor. The girls came out in the second half and totally dominated the next 45 minutes. Shaw completed her hat trick from the spot and added a fourth soon after, 5-2 Liphook. Jess Cox then added the sixth and arguably best goal of the game. Shaw chipped the ball across the box, and Cox met it with a decisive header which flew into the top corner, unstoppable. And still the Blues pressed forward, another cross from Shaw was deflected into the goal by a New Forest defender as she desperately tried to prevent the ball reaching Cox at the back post, 7-2 Liphook. Kaz Pryde and Lynette Dunlop came on for Miron and George, who had run themselves into the ground, and added another dimension to Liphook’s attacking play. Credit to Forest though, they never gave up and their persistence was rewarded when an attack down the left side resulted in a deflected own goal from the otherwise brilliant Georgina Luckhurst. Inches the other way and it would have been the defensive clearance of the game. It would be Liphook though who would have the final say in the game. A further two goals from Shaw, which took her total to six, saw Liphook to the final whistle as 9-3 winners.

While this game was only a pre-season friendly it remains, nevertheless, the most emphatic win by the Ladies team to date. And it was very much a team performance. A team made up, not of just the 11 players starting on the pitch, but of the substitutes and coaches too. The commitment demonstrated by each and every member was evident, and deeply encouraging. Liphook now need take the confidence gained from this match, and a successful pre-season, into September when they kick off their 2010-11 league campaign.