The County Ladies first-team began their league campaign on Sunday against Durham Cestria at Stockport Sports Village. Find out all about how Steve O’Hara’s side got on in our latest weekly update.
County open the season with a draw:
It was great to see a number of County Season Ticket holders coming down to Stockport Sports Village to support County Ladies, in our game against Durham Cestria last Sunday. They were treated to a really close, hard fought match, but unfortunately we couldn’t produce a goal for them to cheer.
The Manchester Evening News sent a reporter and photographer, reflecting their interest in increasing the paper’s coverage of women’s football following the Euros, and it was good to welcome Steve Bellis and the County media team down to watch us kick-off the new season.
Manager Steve O’Hara’s thoughts after yesterday’s game:
“The first game of the season is always a tense day! You need to know if the new players have gelled and if you got the tactics right for the new campaign.
“To have Durham Cestria as opponents for the first game gave us an excellent benchmark, having played them in the final match of last season, a game we lost 5-1.
“The improvements we have made over that time were clear to see. We settled down after 15/20 mins and really took charge of the game, not allowing Durham any sight of goal. Our passing was crisp, and we didn’t panic in possession. Having said that, neither did we create too many clear-cut chances ourselves! So, the most pleasing side of the game was our organisation defensively, from front to back.
“In the second-half Durham came in to it more and we had to rely on debutant Faye Bowness to make a save or two to keep the scores level.
“We tried to keep pressing, but just couldn’t find a clear opportunity to take advantage of. All in all, a point a piece was probably just about right. I was delighted to begin on a positive note for the season, in what is a tough start to the campaign. It gives us massive confidence going into the next few game”.
Upcoming Fixtures:
Next weekend we make the long trip north to play last season’s second place team, Newcastle United. Earlier this year Newcastle Women attracted a crowd of 22,000 to their home game with Alnwick Town at St James’s Park! Unfortunately we don’t get to play our match there, but it will be interesting to see the turnout at Newcastle Falcon’s Kingston Park Stadium.
After that we have an mid-week away game at Leeds United (happy memories of that 4-2 win at EP back in March!).
Then on the 4th September we’re back at Stockport Sports Village to play Bradford City, 2pm kick-off.
