Guernsey FC Women head to Jersey for friendly with an eye on the future

Friday 22 March 2024

The Green Lionesses travel to Jersey for a friendly clash against St Peter Women this weekend.

It is a chance to test the strength in depth of the squad as preparations continue for regular league competition.

"This is a huge opportunity for the coaches to take a full squad and a chance to see more players in a match day environment, getting used to travelling and being part of the squad," Manager Anna Gauvain told the club's website.

"Our away trips so far have been a great opportunity for the girls to get to bond socially, and have a bit of a laugh and a joke together on the coach journeys, for example. We're really looking forward to having more of those experiences on a regular basis in the future."

On our Jersey trip, the coaches plan to give minutes to some of the newer players such as 16-year-old Eleanor Jamieson, Kirstie Marquis, a GB softball player who has recently taken up the sport, and Emily McCartney who has recently come back to the game.

Sophie Gallienne will also be putting on the kit for the first time after injury has kept her out of other matches so far this season.

"It will be a useful exercise ahead of the potential league confirmation knowing that we have depth in our squad in order to compete regularly.

"It was always our aim with becoming part of Guernsey FC to apply to a league and be able to play week in, week out in a league environment, making sure that we've got the next fixture already in place, so a league structure will provide that for us.

"We've built up to a stage where we've got options all over the pitch now with all positions covered, so it's been a good year to have some practice, have some friendly fixtures, and the experience of the cup matches of course. The natural next step is to settle into a league and be competitive within that framework as well."

The training group is now up to around 30.

"As coaches we've all been working hard to get to know all the girls individually, and to work with such a large group. We've learnt a huge amount in terms of making sure the coaching sessions are challenging, but also trying to juggle and cater for the differing abilities that we've had coming in and bringing everybody up to speed.

"We're loving the challenge, because obviously that's what we all came to this project for. The friendly match coming up this weekend also gives us a chance to try different formations and look at pairings on the pitch that we have in mind but have not seen yet in our cup games."

The Green Lionesses have a Cup semi-final match to come in April.

"It's exciting to see some even younger players getting involved as well, such as Molly Watson and Chloe Ingrouille. I can absolutely see them pushing on into the main squad once they reach the age of sixteen. They've been training with the girls for about six months now and the improvement they've made has been massive. They really do bring something to each session now, it's not just about having them involved because they're youngsters."

She admitted it had been frustrating not having as many games as they hoped.

"Having postponements in planned games is bound to be frustrating as it's what our girls play their football for. With such good numbers at training now, we've been able to have some in-house matches, but competitive fixtures are what we want to have, and there's no substitute for that really."