Managers thoughts

To be top of the NWWFL at Christmas is a good feeling, although its on goal difference, were still top of the tree, and I believe we deserve to be there.

Since my last article, we have lost our 100% record, and in a weird way, I'm glad. The loss away at Llanfair taught us so much as a team, it taught us how to lose, what if felt like to lose and it gave us a sense of vulnerability, which I know that we don't want to feel again, in the long run I think it will make us stronger.

A week after our dramatic win against Pwllheli earlier on in the season we gave Airbus a whipping at Cae Seilo, a fantastic performance from our girls where we dominated from start to finish, although Airbus had a depleted team, you can only beat what's in front of you and we did that convincingly. We were given a different test in Prestatyn, playing on a much smaller pitch than usual didn't suit us, and losing Sioned Phillips to injury very early on meant we had to change our shape. Prestatyn gave us a good game to be honest, they dug really deep and battled hard but in the end they tired and allowed us to cruise to the 3 points in the final 30 minutes. We then faced Kinmel Bay in the first round of the NEWFA cup, it was a chance to rotate the team and allow those who have been very patient and haven't had as much game time as others a chance, along with allowing a few others to play in different positions, once again I was so pleased with the performance, those who stepped in performed so well that it has given me a bit of a headache as to when it comes to team selections.

As we had remained unbeaten, it left us and Llanfair at the top of the table, level on points with us ahead on goal difference. I knew before hand that Llanfair is a very tough place to visit and come home with three points so it was going to be a tough afternoon. We had a few injuries, not that its an excuse, but it meant that we couldn't play our usual system and we didn't look comfortable. We started brightly, scored the first and were ahead just until the stroke of half time, then in the second half, it wasn't that we played badly but we let Llanfair get on top of us and they eventually took the match.
The three goals we conceded were disappointing, on another day we wouldn't have conceded them, but what got to me more was the behaviour of the Llanfair manager, stood in the dug out next to us gloating, and when they scored the third he shouted;
"That's why were number 1"
Its fair to say that every dog has his day but karma comes back around, as they went to Pwllheli on the 9th of December and got beaten 2-1 to put them back at second in the league as we had bounced back from the Llanfair defeat to trounce Prestatyn 7-1. I love it when karma bites someone on the arse, a grown man should know better than to gloat in November, there's a long way to go yet, and from what I saw of Llanfair against Pwllheli, they don't deserve to be 'number 1'.

I've been very disappointed that we haven't played in December, we've had three games cancelled on us, but I suppose it's been the same for everyone as the fixtures have all remained equal.

I've arranged a friendly for us on the 30th of December against Welsh Premier League outfit Llandudno, it will be a great test for us, it will give us a chance to use the whole squad, some younger players and some players who have been out with injuries lately, we will also continue to train over the Christmas break to ensure were ready to go in January. Last season we struggled after Christmas, we lost a few players to transfers and injuries and we struggled to find form, but this season were going to get stronger after Christmas, watch this space.

I want to thank the girls, Len and Aaron, the supporters and everyone involved with the club for their huge effort over the first half of the season.