Mistakes cost dearly

Hopefully everyone has had a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

After a short break, albeit with conditioning sessions to be completed during their 'break', the Lady Reds faced the daunting task of playing Canberra in Canberra on the day they could complete an unbeaten season and confirm themselves as League Champions. To add to the task, injuries to Donna Cockayne and Grace Henry meant changes would have to be made to the Adelaide team that defeated Perth before Christmas.

A game plan was put in place and from the start of the game it was working well. Canberra had the greater share of possession but could not break down the Lady Reds. Kath Ebbs was working tirelessly to limit Sally Shipards influence on the game and the ever improving back four of Ashleigh Gunning, Emma Checker, Abby Erceg and Anna Green were doing well to control the dangerous Michelle Heyman, Ashleigh Sykes and Hayley Raso. Unfortunately one moment of lost concentration gave Canberra the chance they were looking for. After conceding a seemingly harmless throw-in around half way, the Lady Reds switched off, allowing Sally Shipard just a yard of space which was all she needed to lob a ball forward which Michelle Heyman reacted to faster than anyone else and in doing so beat Sian McLaren to the ball and headed home to give Canberra a 1-0 lead. 1-0 turned to two moments later as Heyman added her second after a tiring Ruth Wallace was turned by Hayley Raso.

Wallace who had been rushed back after injury due to the absences of Cockayne and Henry was then replaced by Nenita Burgess to try and slow the Canberra onslaught. This change worked and got the Lady Reds into half time just 2 down. Despite the scoreline I was confident that we could change things around a little at half time and cause Canberra more problems than we had in the first half.

Those changes saw the Lady Reds play a 4222 formation in the second half in an attempt to prevent Canberra from dominating the midfield but also to provide more support for Marijana Rajcic in the attacking third of the field. The changes almost worked straight away with Ashleigh Gunning and Anna Green able to get forward from their fullback positions and Racheal Quigley being able to support MJ more readily. With the score still at 2-0 Ashleigh Gunning got forward and provided a tempting cross for Racheal Quigley which she headed past the scrambling Aroon Clansey in goal for Canberra, only to see the ball bounce back off the inside of the post into the keepers hands. Moments later another cross from the right saw MJ force her way past some tight marking to swivel and shoot from 12 yards out, again only to see Clansey pull off an excellent one handed save to keep the score at 2-0.

As the game progressed the Christmas and New Year 'break' started to show and Canberra's better level of fitness prevailed and saw the scoreline blow out with 3 late Canberra goals. This was another lesson for the Lady Reds and more proof that if we are to be competitive in this league we must be professional in our approach both to our training but also in our social lives over the festive period!

Although the scoreline was dissappointing and although I was and still am frustrated by some of our fitness levels there were still many positives to take from the game. In the opening game of the season Canberra beat us 4-1 but it could have been 10 and their attacking players sliced through our back 4 that day, this time round we were much more solid and made life very difficult for them to break us down until the dying stages of the game.  The possession stats in the opening game were around 65:35 in Canberras favour whilst in this game it was 56:44. We still have a lot to do to get the Lady Reds in a position to challenge for finals football and titles but we are moving in the right direction.

Next year will see a much fitter and technically better side that will be able to keep the ball better and cause teams defensive problems instead of just being difficult to break down but before then we have our final home game of this season to play. The visit of Melbourne will be as tough as going to Canberra. Melbourne have finals football on their minds and they will be looking for a strong finish to secure their top 4 spot and to go into the semi-finals on a high. Hopefully we will have Grace and Donna back in contention for the squad to lessen the blow of missing Ashleigh Gunning through suspension, and hopefully we can give our enthusiastic home support something to cheer about on the 15th at Burton.