Back to reality… and still no football

Hi everyone,

Its back to normality, no La Manga sunshine, lovely scenery or three training sessions a day. It’s now work, tax returns and my own training. The trip was hard work but I thoroughly enjoyed it, we gained valuable match fitness and had lots of touches on the ball which has been quite difficult in England for the past few weeks due to the weather. On Friday we played two of the top nations in women’s football, China and Norway. We had 30 players on this trip so Hope Powell decided to split the teams evenly and made sure there was both experience and youthful exuberance in both squads (I was obviously in the latter category). I played China in the morning this was a tough game as China are renowned for being a very fit regimental team that like to play quick football and that is exactly how it was. We started the game brightly and went 2-0 up but China’s never say die attitude meant they came back into the game and the game finished 2-2. The second game against Norway again was going to be a tough test; it posed a different threat to the girls as Norway play a very direct long ball game. Again we coped very well and drew this game 1-1. Hope and the staff were very pleased with both results considering we had been worked very hard throughout the week, we were playing two of the top nations in women’s football and the teams had never played together before. We gained two very positive results which can only bode well for English football in the future.

I don’t have anything to talk about on the Leeds Carnegie ladies front, our game against Watford was called off again for the second time due to the weather. We now haven’t played a game for our club for over month. I hope it is ok for next week as we want to get games in before our cup final. As I am based in Merseyside I do all my regional training with a lot of the Everton girls so you can imagine the banter I have been getting about the final. I am just quietly going about my business and my trainer has set me a programme so hopefully I will be at peak by then. I have tried to pay him to set the Everton girls a different programme so that they will be slow overweight and fatigued but he is far to professional to do that ( I did try Rick) !!

The summer league can’t come quick enough for us, not only would the standard improve due to us training every day with our teams but also playing on better pitches in front of a good crowd will only make the game more entertaining. The bids have now all been put into the FA so it is just a case of the clubs biting their nails waiting to see if they have been accepted. It will be a difficult process as only 8 teams can get in and double this have applied. I just hope the mighty Leeds get in as we will be a force to be reckoned with (I am not biased one bit!!)