Last month in St. Omer, France 27th to 31st October the Ladies played in the European Championship Seniors and although they lost all the games there was a big improvement from 2007 Championship in results as well as the team, which was much more competitive.
Our team was the youngest one in the competition with two 15 year old players, with the oldest player being 23 years old.
This gives us a good future as all these girls still have a lot of room for improvement and more years of playing at this level.
The team played throughout the competition defending individually restricted but on some occasions changing to pressuring the player with the ball and half way line.
I was very pleased with the attitude of the girls on and off the rink, showing their commitment to play for England and we gained even more respect from other countries.
One complaint about this competition was the standard of the referees, who penalised England quite a lot. Coaches from all the countries made the same comments and the CERH has to be more careful when selecting their referees for this level of Roller Hockey as it is not good for our sport.
England 0 Spain 7
(Half-Time 0-3)
England started the competition against the World Champions It was not easy playing our first game in the European Championships against Spain, however England played for large periods of the game with good individual defence restricted pressuring the player with the ball. Basic mistakes due to lack of concentration and reaction cost us at least 4 of the goals.
Although we had the first 2 shots in the game and missed a penalty in the second half the team needs to improve their confidence when attacking.Players need to move off the ball more to create pass lines and be more aggressive in the front of the goal as we had good long shots but no there was no player coming in for rebound.
England were more competitive in this game than in previous games against the Spanish which meant that their coach to played their starting line up for the whole of the first half, showing respect to England. Now we are look forward to playing Germany the 2007 European Champions.
This competition is very hard considering we have to play 4 countries Spain, Portugal, France and Germany who between themselves have won the last European Championship Competitions.
Our main objective will be to beat Switzerland to finish 5th however I am expecting to see our team raise their confidence levels every day and to be more competitive in their next matches.
England 0 Germany 6
(Half-Time 0-3)
After first game against the World Champions we then played the European Champions
The team improved from the first game in both confidence and reaction. Players were very focused the whole game on restricted defence pressuring the player with the ball.
Ball possession when attacking was a great improvement from first game which resulted in more structured attacks and goal scoring opportunities.
The final result reflects some bad refereeing decisions from the French referee considering we conceded 4 goals from penalties and direct free hits of which only one I would agree with referee?s decision. My opinion was corroborated by the other referee after the game.
As I said previously this is not an easy competition and today we play Portugal another top country in the world. However I am still confident that the team will continue to improve everyday.
England 1 Portugal 13
(Half-Time 0-7)
This was the worst performance from the team as we were not concentrated enough .
Poor defending caused a lot of problems to our counter attack and we just could not keep possession of the ball, which is very important at any level of Roller Hockey.
This was a game that we would need to remember but only so we could learn from the mistakes.
England 1 France 10
(Half Time 1-3)
After the Portugal game, the girls showed great attitude and we had one the greatest performances in the first half from an England Ladies team against one the best teams in the competition. Their concentration in defence along with good counter attacking opportunities provided us with the move that was finished by Beth.
In the second half France showed that they had a very strong team and were fitter and a faster reaction capacity. They stepped up a gear and took the game to us and made their opportunities count as they scored seven goals.
England 2 Switzerland 4
(Half-time 2-2)
The last game of the competition to decide 5th / 6th places.
We started the game very well taking the lead twice at 1-0 and 2-1, but the more experienced Swiss team made the difference.
England started with excellent individual defence which caused a lot of problems for the Swiss team. England deserved to be 2 goals up at half time considering the scoring opportunities created as well as they way we had maintained ball possession and had more shots on target.
In the second half our game was not as good as the first half due to tiredness, however we still dominated the game but with a lucky 3rd goal for the Swiss the onus was on us to score. The team pressured full rink to try and get the goal back.
The job done by the girls was excellent and they deserved to win this game, but it went against us
Ladies Seniors Squad Announced
The squad to take part in the 2009 Ladies European Championships in St. Omer, France
27th - 31st October 2009 will be:
Photo Supplied By Gordon Morrison |
1. Emma Russell - Plymouth 2. Kirsty Ingham - Bury (Capt.) 3. Anna Russell - Plymouth 4. Beth Cook - Middlesbrough 5. Emily Rawlinson - Bury 6. Ruth Russell - Plymouth 7. Emily Sheppard - HBU 8. Lucy Rivers - Bury (Vice-Capt.) 9. Chloe Stevenson - Middlesbrough 10. Rachel Joy - Bury |
Management
Head Coach - Carlos Amaral
Manager - Dave Fothergill
Assistant Manager - Jan Cook
Mechanic - Ricky Jupp
The team have 4 more training sessions together this weekend in Soham, including some matches, before departing by car to France.
More details about the Championships can be found on the official site