Greetings from sunny Cyprus

We have been in Larnaca Cyprus since Mon and have trained each day in preparation for the tournament to begin, our group consists of South Africa, Canada and Switzerland this is a tough group but as long as we play well its one we can definitely win. Our hotel is right on the beach so we have been able to do our recovery ice baths in the sea, it’s still freezing but slightly more pleasant than sitting in a bath full of ice!!

We played Everton again on Thursday in the league away and guess what WE WON again 3-1. This is probably a more important result than the cup final if we are going to try and finish as high up as we can in the league. We knew this would be a revenge match for Everton and that they would come at us strong which is exactly what they did. Within 10minutes of the start they got a penalty and scored, after this we started to relax and create chances but still went in at half time 1-0 down. The second half was a completely different story we dominated and scored our three goals but it could have been more. Now we have a break due to us being away and also our under 23’s are in La Manga so our next game will be Bristol at home on the 7th March. We need to continue our winning streak but at the moment I think Rick’s smile is from Leeds to Cyprus!! I have to tell you a funny story about our captain Sophie Bradley, we were all changed when Rick come into the changing rooms to give us our team talk, I glanced over at Sophie who was sitting with her match shirt socks, boots, shin pads and cycling shorts she had completely forgot to put her shorts on, me being the nice team mate passed it around to all the girls what she had done after lots of laughter she realised her mistake, I so wish she had run out on the pitch like that!!

Before I went away I attended a young Leader camp in West Riding run by Jo de Tute. This is the second year I have been and I think it is such a worthwhile event. It basically gets young people into volunteering and gives them some valuable leadership skills, the opportunities are vast and they can do coaching and refereeing courses and two of the gifted leaders get nominated to go to the national camp in London with others young people from around the country. They can travel to under privileged countries and help with the children there, the stories they come back with are amazing. I have been many places playing for England but don’t have the experience some of these young people have gained. This is fantastic to put on their CV and will almost certainly put them in a good position to get a job.

I better go and prepare for our first game against South Africa I will let you know how we have got on next week.