Gillingham 0-2 West Ham United - We just can't seem to put the ball in the net, says James Marrs

GILLINGHAM  0-2  WEST HAM UNITED
The FA Women’s Premier League Southern Division
Sunday 13^th January 2013
Stephen McCartney reports from Maidstone Road

GILLINGHAM manager James Marrs says his side are involved in a relegation dog-fight - despite playing an eye-pleasing Barcelona brand of passing football.

Gillingham, who came into this FA Women’s Premier League Southern Division midtable clash on the back of a comfortable 6-1 win over MK Dons seven days’ ago, enjoyed plenty of possession with the ball but they lacked quality in the final third and were punished during the second half when West Ham United’s striker partnership Becky Merritt and Hannah Gowland scored.

“I thought we were the better side on the balance of play in the first half,”admitted Marrs, 25, after the game.

“We moved the ball around a lot more. We’re just lacking end product in the final third really. That’s all we’re missing at the moment.  Our build-up play is very good, we’ve got our foot in, we’ve worked hard all across the pitch in all areas and the finishing in the final third is just the difference really.

“We just can’t seem to put the ball in the back of the net!

“Second half we’ve had a few chances, the ball flashed around the box but no one’s on the end of them and if you don’t put the ball in the back of the net you don’t win games.”

The Kent side remain in sixth-place with 12 points from 12 games and all four clubs below them in the table have games in hand over them.

When asked about his side’s league campaign, Marrs admitted: “Poor, I think, but if you don’t finish your chances, you don’t get points.  You don’t score goals you don’t get points and at the moment our performances have been really good but our finishing has been really poor and it’s costing us at the moment.

“We’re now in a relegation battle where we should be more than comfortable in midtable, if not pushing on.

“We just have to keep going.  We’ll pick ourselves up. The girls’ are not sulkers, they’ll get ourselves together during the week and make sure we put on a solid training session and get prepped for next week and that’s all we can do really.

“I’m not going to look too far ahead, just look at the next game and iron out the problems we had in this game in the next game and move forward from there.”

Neither side created a real clear cut chance during the second half and were forced to shoot from distance.

West Ham United, who went into the game one point and one place above the Gills, created their first chance inside the opening two and a half minutes when Merritt’s curling right-footed drive from 25-yards forced Gillingham keeper Ruth Jackson into making a diving save to her left to push the ball around the post.

Gillingham’s first chance arrived after eight minutes when Jay Blackie released right-back Lauren Williams on the overlap and she had time and space to whip in a cross towards the near post, which was hooked towards goal by Jade Keogh, which bounced across keeper Toni-Anne Wayne and past the far post.

Gillingham keeper Jackson made a comfortable save to deny Gowland scoring from a low left-footed drive from 30-yards.

A ball forward from Gillingham left-back Danielle Carlton – who was playing in the middle of the park last Sunday – set up a chance for striker Nicole Pepper, whose right-footed drive from 30-yards bounced once before being gathered by the former Gills’ keeper.

Gillingham produced a sweeping move in the 20^th minute moving the ball from right to left when Keogh found Natalie Crinean, who played the ball inside to Pepper who set up a chance for Carlton, whose right-footed shot sailed wide from 35-yards.

Carlton’s next effort, however, a speculative effort five yards further out, looped into Wayne’s gloves.

West Ham United went direct when Jess Barling clipped the ball over the halfway line from defence and Gowland struck a speculative left-footed shot from 30-yards, which was spilt by the Gillingham keeper, who was thankful that she was standing away from her goal-line as the ball squirmed the other side of the foot of the post for a corner.

Barling cut inside Carlton as she made progress down the right before whipping in a cross towards the far post but Gowland miss-directed her header from eight-yards out.

Both sides cancelled themselves out during the first half and referee Mr Alan Hills blew his half-time whistle with 43:37 on the clock.

Reflecting on the first half, Marrs said: “Most of it was played out in the middle of the park really. It was quite an even game across the board.”

When asked what he said to his players during the half-time interval, Marrs said: “I said to the girls’ our movement wasn’t good enough.  We were very static.  I was just saying to the girls that our movement had to be on the go the whole time whilst the balls transferring across the pitch.”

Gillingham did put the ball into the back of the net, only 97 seconds into the second half, but the offside flag had already been raised by the time that striker Rachel Ahern slotted the ball into an empty net after Emma Tune clipped the ball over the top from the middle of the park.

But West Ham United grabbed the lead in the 52^nd minute of the game.

The impressive Gowland cut inside Williams to reach the left by-line before drilling the ball inside to Kelley Blanchflower, who laid the ball off to Merritt to drill her right-footed shot into the roof of the net, curling over Jackson’s left shoulder, from 12-yards out.

“That came from a mistake from the final third from us,” bemoaned Marrs.

“We’ve lost possession of the ball, they broke on the counter and they’ve used their possession well, used the ball really well and the girl fired it into the top bins.  It was a good goal from their perspective.   They sat off, won the ball and done their job really and played on the counter and managed to nick it. Job done for them really!”

Gillingham were presented with a decent opportunity to restore parity when they were awarded a free-kick 30-yards from goal in a central position.

Carlton stroked her left-footed free-kick to the left of the four players of the wall and the ball bounced once into Wayne’s gloves to make a comfortable low save.

Marrs said: “With the free-kicks and stuff it’s hit and miss.  She tends to tends to get a decent connection on the ball but all of her free-kicks today didn’t seem to come off for her. The pitch ain’t in great condition so it does have a factor in the delivery of set-pieces.  You have those games sometimes when it just doesn’t happen.”

West Ham United were given a similar opportunity only 65 seconds later and Merritt stroked her right-footed free-kick over the three players in the wall and Jackson danced across her line to palm the ball (which was heading towards the top left-hand corner) up and gathered the bouncing ball at the second attempt.

Gillingham’s best chance to equalise came in the 59^th minute when Pepper swung in a free-kick from 40-yards and Blackie headed the ball on to skipper Crinean, who hooked a right-footed shot on the turn from 15-yards, which stung Wayne’s fingers at her near post.

“That’s her first 90 minutes today (following her knee injury),” said Marrs.

“She’s been back in training for three weeks. She played 57 minutes last week and she managed to get the full 90 today. You could tell she’s rusty, she’s hardly played any games so that will do her good, but the pleasing thing for me was she was in the right areas to have the chances so we can move on from there.”

Marrs made a double substitution and made a tactical change and opted to play central defender Deanna Cooper in a more attacking role on the right and substitute Amy Taylor slotted in to partner Vicky Ashton-Jones in defence, whilst substitute Bryony Smith swapped places with winger Keogh.

Marrs explained his team selection thinking.  “It was a hard decision today really because my right-winger, Bryony Smith, who has been on the bench, has been in contention for a start because she’s been working really hard in training so it’s a tough decision today. Jade (Keogh) played really well last week (scoring) so she got a deserved start today.  Obviously I want Nat to get more minutes so you can’t play the three of them up front. 

“Deanna done well when she was up there. She knows what she’s doing when she’s up there. She’s a quality player.”

Versatile Cooper terrorised Katie Bottom (West Ham’s substitute who was playing at left-back at the time) with plenty of pace down the right and she whipped in numerous good crosses, but her team mates failed to get on the end of them.

On one of those occasions, Pepper released Cooper, whose cross should have been tucked away by Smith, but the ball bounced off her and was caught by Wayne close by.

A poor goal-kick from Wayne was picked up by Smith, who burst forward but her left-footed shot sailed over the crossbar.

But West Ham United grabbed a second goal with eight minutes remaining, courtesy of a mistake from Gillingham keeper Jackson.

April Bowers played the ball across the penalty area from right to left to find the unmarked Gowland, who swept her weak low left-footed shot towards goal, which should have brought a routine comfortable save from the keeper.

But Jackson dived low to her right and allowed the ball to inexplicably creep underneath her body to nestle inside the bottom near corner.

“Yes, you’ve got to save it, the goalkeeper’s got to save it,” said Marrs.

“I was talking to my left-winger, I was encouraging my left winger to get on and then I saw the net bulge. I don’t know what happened there?! I will have a chat with the goalkeeper about it!  Whether it took a bobble or what, but it was a bad mistake.  If you make mistakes you’re going to get punished and that’s what West Ham done to us today.”

The Hammers almost scored a flattering third when Blanchflower was given time and space to send over a cross from the right flank to find the unmarked Bowers, whose right-footed shot bounced just wide.

Gillingham went close again when Williams played the ball down the line to Cooper, who whipped in a cross towards the near post and Crinean flicked her right-footed shot straight at Wayne at her near post from ten-yards.

West Ham went close again after substitute Sam Rowland and Bowers combined well on the right and Merritt drilled her left-footed angled drive across keeper Jackson and just wide of the far post.

Gillingham had the last word though and Taylor planted her header over at the near post (following Pepper’s corner from the left) with the last action of the game.

Marrs, however, took positives from their second home league defeat of the season.

“You always get positives out of the game,” he said. “The midfield three worked hard, they moved the ball around quite well. We managed to get round the back of West Ham more in the second half but we just need to work on that delivery in the final third really.

“I thought just the difference was they got those chances and they buried them and we didn’t.  We need to now start putting these chances away because it’s too many games now. Every week I’m saying the same thing.  Possession is really good, we graft really hard, we win second balls and we tend to have the upper hand but not manage to put the ball in the net and that’s the difference.”

Watching Gillingham is pleasing on the eye and Marrs explained why he plays the Barcelona way.

He said: “A lot of coaches are blinded at the moment by the Spanish method and the Barcelona way of playing.  I’m a massive fan of that and the girls are a massive fan of that as well.

“If you play good football you create your own chances. I would be more worried if we were playing good football and not creating any chances.  That would be a problem, but we are creating chances. It’s just that we’re not putting them in the back of the net. Once you combine the two - you saw last week yourself we played some fantastic football and scored some fantastic goals. We scored six goals and could have been 12!

“The long ball method, if you set up to play it, is affective. Don’t get me wrong, if you set up to play it and you do tend to be hard to beat, but for me that doesn’t progress the players by whacking the ball up to the centre forward. How does that progress an individual player? It doesn’t! 

“For me, my aim is to improve each and every single player that I can at the football club and make them more aware and technically a better player and they have done that so far. It’s just putting the ball in the net and that’s what it boils down to.”

Meanwhile, Pepper, 17, has been called up to the England U19 squad for the behind closed doors game against Denmark.  The striker is the fourth player to represent her country whilst playing for Gillingham, the others being Cooper, Ash Hincks and Sarah Quantrill.

“Fantastic achievement for her,” said her proud manager.  “She’s got called up to the last training camp so she must have made an impression there but she’s a good girl. She grafts hard in training, takes everything on board and she’s got her just rewards. She deserves that England call up. 

“She’s had a decent game today. She showed the other side of her performance with her battling and her tackling and she got stuck in. She was a bit unlucky with her booking (for her sliding challenge on Stacey Little), I thought it was harsh but she fully deserves her chance and hopefully she starts for them.”

Gillingham’s next League game is at home to third-from-bottom side Tottenham Hotspur (who went down to a 2-1 home defeat to leaders Reading today) in two weeks’ time.

But before that game, Gillingham travel to Meridian Girls next Sunday in the Kent Women’s Cup Quarter-Final before travelling to another lower league side in the shape of Herne Bay (who beat Anchorian Ladies 6-1 to reach the semi-finals of their League Cup today) in the Ryman Women’s Cup Quarter-Final.

“I’m expecting us to get out what we do on the training ground this week – finishing!

“We’ve got to be ruthless next week and we should be ruthless. No disrespect to Meridian, but they are further down the pyramid than what we are so we should be looking to rack up the goals next week.

“We won’t take them lightly, we will be professional, but we’ll certainly be looking to rack the goals up next week.”

Looking further ahead to playing Anthony Deer’s free-scoring Herne Bay side at Winch’s Field, Marrs added: “A couple of the girls know a couple of the Herne Bay players and they actually fancy their chances against us so that’s wound a few of the girls’ up so we’ll definitely be switched on for that one.

“We’ll be looking for the same sort of performance that we had from last week. It’s an good opportunity for us. We’ve got a chance of getting into the final of both Cups. The draws have been quite kind to us so hopefully we’ll be professional and do the business and we can get into two finals.”

Gillingham: Ruth Jackson, Lauren Williams, Danielle Carlton, Jay Blackie, Deanna Cooper, Vicky Ashton-Jones, Natalie Crinean, Emma Tune, Rachel Ahern (Amy Taylor 72), Nicole Pepper, Jade Keogh (Bryony Smith 72).
Sub: Emma Wood

Booked: Nicole Pepper 67

West Ham United: Toni-Anne Wayne, Vicky King, Danica Revell, Rosey Sullivan, Jess Barling (Katie Bottom 73), Kelley Blanchflower, Lindsey Morgan (Lily Mellors 58), April Bowers, Stacey Little, Becky Merritt, Hannah Gowland (Sam Rowland 90)

Goals: Becky Merritt 52, Hannah Gowland 82

Attendance: 53
Referee: Mr Alan Hills (Welling)
Assistants: Mr Chris Minter (Gillingham) & Mr Vince Swan (Rochester)