WOMEN AND GIRLS UPDATE

This week the Gills welcomed the England legend Pauline Cope-Boanas to the backroom staff as Goalkeeper Coach, Pauline joining the team will bring a huge amount of experience and prestige having enjoyed an illustrious international and domestic playing career.

Gillingham Ladies returned to Chatham Town FC for their first home game since 23 August with a solid performance and win over Norwich City Ladies. 

Gills started brightly with good early possession and broke the deadlock on xx minutes with a superb 25 yard free kick scored by Jade Keough. Norwich City Ladies levelled the score on xx minutes by lobbing Gills keeper Courtney Shanley, however, following the goal from the visitors the Gills had numerous good chances denied by the Norwich City Ladies keeper. The Gills then took the lead through Kallie Balfour who provided a cool and composed finish.

The second half started with Norwich City Ladies playing with high intensity and put a lot of pressure on the Gills well organised and solid defence including hitting the cross bar from a long range effort, this positive start by the visitors was short lived as the Gills scored their third goal and Kallie Balfour’s second with another clinical finish. Emma Tune and Ashleigh Loosemore were introduced on 65 minutes and both had a positive impact on play going forward with some good runs towards goal. Kallie Balfour grabbed her hat trick to increase the score line to 4-1. The ball made it to the back of the net for a fifth but this did not count due to an offside decision.

Manager Jack Wheeler praised his team “I’m really pleased with the progression we’ve made over the last few weeks. The girls had to show good characteristics to respond to their equaliser. Norwich had a confident spell in the game and we stood up well and were able to put the game to bed relatively comfortably.”

“We’ve got a bunch of happy players who work hard in training and as long as they are patient and apply those principles in the games we play, I will always be a satisfied manager.”

Two cup draws have been announced this week, firstly the Gills will commence their defence of the Kent FA Women’s Cup in the 1st Round against Dartford Royals at home on 18th October 2015, with a potential re-match with last year’s finalists London Corinthians in the 2nd Round.  

Secondly, the Gills will face Southampton away on 4th October 2015 in the 1st Round of the FA Women Premier League Plate.

Congratulations to Girls COE U17s Goalkeeper, Katie Startup who has been selected to represent England U17s in the UEFA Championship qualifiers taking place in Estonia and the squad fly out to Tallinn on 28th September to face Croatia, Estonia and Poland.

 

U17s Manager, Pete Sayer said 'Katie's continued hard work, commitment and professional attitude has enabled her to develop her game to higher and higher levels and it has come as no surprise that she has been called up on international duty once again. We are all extremely proud of her achievements and are excited to see our club represented at the highest level of the game. I speak for all the coaches and players in wishing Katie the best of luck!'

 

COE U11-17s travelled to London to play Arsenal on Saturday 12 September. U17s Manager, Pete Sayer said ‘there were lots of positives from today's game against probably the best U17 team in the country.  The girls tried the right things and grafted until the end!’

 

This week saw the return of our Girls Academy squad for the start of the new season and academic year.

 

Now in its second year, we welcomed 8 first years to our squad, with a number of our current COE and COE graduates continuing on with their Education with us in the Academy. A lot of the girls already knew each other through Centre football but everyone had the opportunity to meet at our recent Induction Day at Kicks Soccer Centre in Strood, where they took part in some team building exercises and everyone’s favourite, bubble football.

 

The week started off with some light yoga work before going over individual fitness and nutrition plans for the coming months. Then it was back in to the classroom to begin work on their modules for the new season. 

Well done to the Girls Academy students that passed their FA Level 1 Coaching badge.

This week also saw the start of our third year of FFD (Female Football Development) Programme, where we engage with females aged 14+ to try and get them interested and into sport by providing fun, fitness based football sessions for a range of women. The project aims to target at least 360 different girls across this academic year.

Season Tickets were still available to purchase from the club’s ticket office, as well as at match days and online.

Season Tickets cost £25 and enable Gills Ladies fans to access all league home games and half price tickets for cup fixtures.

Support for the team has been fantastic so far this season, with 100 supporters attending the match against Norwich City Ladies but we would love to see more supporters come and watch the team.