Dresses For Goalposts

Jill Scott’s 69th minute header secures a further three points for the Lionesses.

Sunday night saw a huge attendance of 13,040 fans at a very wet and very windy Ashton Gate in Bristol. England’s line up included the return of some familiar faces that were rested during Thursday night’s friendly against Germany, with Laura Bassett and Eni Aluko in the starting eleven, Today also saw Jess Clarke’s return to the starting line up after disappointingly missing out on World Cup selection.

England kicked off and almost straight away earned themselves a corner, this would be the first of nine unconverted corners in the first half. 

England first real chance came at twenty minutes when Eni Aluko slid in, narrowly missing the goal from an excellent delivery from Jordan Nobbs. Four minutes later Bosnia Herzegovina got their only shot of the day on target. This was easily handled by Karen Bardsley, who did well to remain focused throughout the game, with very little to do.

The 27th minute saw corner number five and another narrow miss from Aluko who headed the shot just over the cross bar. There was one more close call at 40 minutes when Aluko pulled the ball back to Izzy Christianson who  had her shot blocked by the goalkeeper.

Half time score 0-0

The second half saw much of the same type of action as the first half. With Bosnia holding all of their players within 30 yards of their own goal line.  Some rash challenges from the Bosnian defence brought England four free kicks this half, none of which managed to bear fruit.

50 minutes in to the game and Jordan Nobbs got close from one of her trademark 30 yard screamers, which was expertly parried by the Goalkeeper.

Jill scott came on at 54 minutes and just 15 minutes later she managed to finally break down the brick wall defence, scoring with a looping header.

Full time 1-0

My Bosnian Player of the match - Goalkeeper Almina Hodzic was the stand out performer for their team. With a really attacking style she came out and collected many of Englands corners and crosses and looked like she wold be tough to beat.

“ The creation of a thousand forests is in one acorn” - Ralph Waldo Emerson

In 2009 after a series of heavy defeats and after slipping significantly down the world rankings; and also with the impending home Olympics in 2012. It was announced that there would be a centralised programme for all potential Great Britain athletes. This was to be based in Bisham Abbey, Buckinghamshire.  The idea for the programme is that during the four year Olympic cycle, all prospective squad members would train  and play together in Bisham Abbey all year round. With the same training and rehab facilities as each other, but would still play with their respective league teams at the weekends. The unique difference between Great Britain (some might say advantage) is that we are made up of four separate nations. Some of the FIH competitions don't allow the players to compete as Great Britain and so periodically throughout the year players go back to their nations to train, with the English players remaining where they are to continue with their training.

There can be no denying that the programme has been incredibly successfully, with the Ladies moving up from 6th in the world to 3rd since its creation. The team also managed to secure a bronze medal at the 2012 Olympics, followed by a Silver at the Commonwealth Games in 2014 and a Gold in the Eurohockey championships in 2015, beating the world number 1 ranked Dutch team in the final, German Head Coach Jamilon Mulders, who's team were defeated in the semi final by England attributed the loss partly to the fact that the English players were far physically fitter than his own players, who only get together for a couple of weeks before a tournament. 

While I'm not denying that this was a great and very successful decision and a great opportunity for all of the British players to truly be their best and compete at the highest level; I am questioning the location of the “centralised” programme. By locating the programme in Buckinghamshire (one hour from the south coast and six hours from the northern border) it has had an impact on the club sides not based in the south. As players can play for a club side at the weekend, it stands to reason that they can only travel so far away from the centralised programme. Meaning that all of the best of the players in the country end up playing for southern teams. Leicester and Beeston traditionally power houses from the Midlands, have seen most of their GB players leave in favour of teams nearer to the programme. Leicester former table toppers and European competitors finding themselves near the bottom of the table and Beeston after years of being at the top of their game finding themselves relegated. There are ten teams competing in the Premier Division and of those two are from the Midlands and one is from the North. Two of those teams currently 8th and 9th out of ten.

I can’t help but think that if only the decision had been made to base the programme in the Midlands, that hockey could have flourished all over the country. At the minute the North and gradually the Midlands is being starved of good quality hockey and of the opportunity for young players to thrive. I fear that in a decade time there will be no Premier division teams north of London.

Up next - FAWSL season’s impact on English teams success in the Champions League

“When everything seems against you, remember that the airplane takes off against the wind” H Ford

Sunday the 1st of November saw the Women’s Continental cup final, which I myself attended and although when I went as a fan to watch I wasn’t expecting anything to blog about, it turned out to raise a series of issues that are present within the Ladies game still ( i’m sure you can guess what one of the things is!)

The first issue, and I understand that I don't know the ins and outs of what truly happened, was that of the lack of silver medals. This was a big opportunity to showcase how professional and quality women’s football is and I can't help but feel that all the players were let down. Arsenal and Notts had played and fought hard for a great and exciting match for all those watching, with all efforts being dashed by the unprofessional organisation after the game. The offical statement cited “ a communication error” as the reason that there were no silver medals. Notts had beaten several teams in the run up to even getting the match and all be it the medal was not the colour they had set out to achieve it was the measure of the success that they had achieved and the presentation would have been a moment to celebrate with their fans publicly. It seems that while individual clubs and players are massively stepping up the professionalism within the game, they are being let down by the organisation and professionalism of this above them. I can only hope that ts events like this that are the wake up call that is needed. 

The second one is the quality of the match officials. I’ve come to realise that during the course of me writing this, I don't actually know where I sit on the issue. I am a big believer in equal opportunities and people being given appointments on their own merits and not because they are a specific gender. I cant help but feel that in this case, and with a match of this importance the best available officials should have been used and not the just the best available female officials. Women football has grown exponentially over the past year and games are being watched by more people both live and on TV. The standard of officiating at this televised event was poor. There was an opportunity to show a wide audience what women football is all about (indeed I was sat by many people that were witnessing it for the first time) and the decision that wrongly took place in the early stages of the game, ultimately killed off what was setting up to be a great and equal game. Now heres the bit that makes me undecided, I have just said that officials should be picked by their merit and not their gender, which i fully stand by, however, at this stage in the women’s game with the growth it is going through I feel that we need a broader depth of quality female officials available. I can only think that at this initial stage we need a female specific pathway for officials. I think that many females are put off by the fact they will spend most of their time officiating male matches, and that during these they will have far more to contend with than just the game at hand. Once there is a broader spectrum of female officials, maybe then we can mix again.

Up next - Should the England Hockey centralised programme be more central?

New Blog released every Sunday

“The act of taking the first step is what seperates excellence from average” - B Coghill

The plight of Doncaster Rovers Belles is a story worthy of Hollywood. However, I think that this is just the beginning of something great for women’s football in this country as a whole, and not just a return to where they have come from for one team. 

I don’t think the significance of what the Belles are doing has been fully appreciated and my intention is to comment on what I think will happen and match it to the reality. This is my first of three blogs intended on this subject.

“An arrow can only be shot by pulling it backward. So when life is dragging you back with difficulties, it means that it’s going to launch you into something great.” 

As we know in 2013 the Belles were cruely relegated by the FA. Through some quality signings and a lot of hard graft the Belles managed to secure a promotion place at the end of this season, coming second only to Reading FC. This alone appeared to complete the full circle fairy tale. However, In October of this year we caught wind of an exciting project being announced by the club. The term “Proect Phoenix” being floated around social media, The rumour mill was flying as to what it could be, and I for one did not predict what it actually was.

On the 7th of October 2015 the project was revealed and a multi million pound personal investment by chair lady Faye Lygo and her husband Carl came to light. This investment was to provide a training facility, the likes never seen in this country specifically for a women’s football team ( maybe even into women sport as a whole). The Belles will have full time use of the state of the art training facilities, coupled with ten of the players getting full time professional contracts. My thoughts can only be that the players at this club are going to develop as footballers and professionals at such a rate that it is gonna force other clubs to follow suit with trying to get similar investment into them. This will then drive the game forward at a much more accelerated rate. The better the investment, the better the quality of the players, the better the quality of the game, the better media coverage and so the cycle begins again, It feels like we are stanfding on the precipice of something huge and i just hope that great things come from this. The Belles once again being the pioneers of this great sport.

Up next - Long Gone Silver!  The story of the shambolic Continental Cup Final