Hello all.
Training on Thursday taken by Lee, which saw us working on fitness and how to maintain possession.
This was following our FA Cup defeat last Sunday against Long Lane.
Fitness wasn't made to feel like a chore but competition between two teams using the football.
Communicating and working together to achieve the goal and who ever won had to come up with a forfeit for the other team.
We progressed this team work into possession play in a game situation where everyone has to touch the ball to be able to score.
We finished the session off with a little bit of shooting practice individually and in one-on-one situations.
Sunday's game was against Enfield Town Reserves with whom we have plenty of history.
Let's quickly recap.
Two seasons ago we were both fighting for the top spot in the table to just get beat by a couple of points.
First and second were able to get promoted so we went up and won against them in the Russell Cup to make it through to the final and go on to win the whole thing.
Last season saw Brentford ladies on top of the league fighting for back to back promotions with Enfield at their tails again.
We won the home game 9-3, with Ashley Cheatley scoring a hat-trick, and the away game was where we could have won the league.
We made it hard for ourselves and didn't play well, obviously blaming it on the early morning kick off and the heat.
We lost that game but overall we went up anyway, we just made it harder for ourselves to win the league.
History aside it was a new season anything could happen.
The starting line up was: Caroline, Amber L, Judith, Me (Charlotte), Amber LL, Lisa Grant, Vicky James (skipper), Claire (Goody), Lavana, Ashley and Dana up top.
Subs were Tia, Sophie T, Sophie Lee, Lucy E, Lauren R.
We needed to go out there and win to turn things around from the last few weeks.
We started slow and off guard which allowed Enfield to go 1-0 up.
It didn't take long for us to come bouncing back Lavana played the ball into Dana Johnson who made it 1-1.
Game on!
We didn't let them come at us, little Lisa was off down the wing and set the ball up nicely for Ashley Cheatley to find the back of the net - 2-1, we had this!
Enfield did have their chances, spreading the ball from side to side and finding space.
Brentford ladies managed to keep it tight at the back so Dana Johnson could run through on goal making it 3-1.
We just couldn't stop after that, Lavana and Ashley went onto score two more goals making it 5-1 at half time.
In the second half Enfield got a corner and with help from the wind a little it went in back post deceiving our defender.
That didn't stop us though, Goody hit the bar and then our captain Vicky James scored making it 6-2!
Subs were made and Lavana came off for Lucy E, I came off for Lauren R, Goody came off for Tia, Sophie Lee on for Amber L who took a knock to her ankle, Dana came off for Sophie T.
Ashley Cheatley managed to grab herself another hat-trick, her third against Enfield in the last few seasons - 7-2!
Then Lucy E managed to score from a corner placed into the box by Vicky James to make the final score 8-2.
To be honest we didn't play the best of football, it was a bit sloppy and we could have easy exploited Enfield a bit more.
However the job was done, we won and we are through to the next round.
Here is a little message from Dan Saunders about Sunday.
"I would like to say well done to the ladies for a good win and to get back to winning ways with a great result," he said.
"In spells of the game we played some good football and was able to keep possession of the ball.
"It was good to see the ladies try and put things into practice that we have worked on in training.
"With three big games ahead for the ladies it's so important that maximum points are achieved in all three games to keep the league hopes alive.
"I have every faith in them."
I would just like to point out from the league front that Brentford Ladies now have five players in the top 15 goal scorers in the league!
They are Ashley Cheatley, 13 goals in seven appearances, Dana Johnson, ten goals in eight, Lavana five in five, Lucy Easton, four in seven, and finally Vicky James, four goals in eight appearances.
That's top work from our ladies, we are goal machines.
And they have scored many more in all the cup appearances we have had.
I would like to wish Manuela our solid centre back a speedy recovery due to a bad ankle injury playing netball at college, please stick to football next time!
Bees you later,