Bondy's notes from Carshalton

Three points on the board 

I’m delighted we’ve got our first win of the season and my first competitive win since arriving at Teddington Athletic. It of course is specially nice to get your first win when you join a club. (Gaz, I think you said you’d buy me a coffee...) The girls are amazing people, so I’m really happy for them.

We were all disappointed we lost at Abbey Rangers, where we were the better team; I thought the players gave an honest performance there and got nothing for it. Thank you to the parents for your support on Sunday, we’re pleased you were able to celebrate two goals and a WIN.

Overcoming the unexpected

It was hard to know what to expect from a Carshalton side: promoted last season, beaten last week 4-2 at home by Fleet Town but scored two goals. We of course know Fleet Town set out a hard-working physical side.

Recognising this and looking at the result, we expected and discussed with the players that Carshalton would work hard. Starting with 10 players, Carshalton did indeed show what a hard-working team they are – and looked dangerous going forward: that continued for a lot of the game, I felt.

A good footballing team

We played some fantastic football. Any good coach will tell you that it’s a brilliant feeling when you work on things and it comes off, or you can see the improvement in training and on game day. We work a lot on possession in training: combination play, link-up play, support play, movement off the ball, angles, dribbling and especially being creative. When we started to link up with each other, with runs off the ball and players wanting the ball, Carshalton could not cope.

Squeeze and spread

I felt at times we could have been quicker to squeeze and press our opposition, winning the ball back or at least exerting enough pressure to force Carshalton into mistakes. We covered this in training and will continue to improve that part of our game: pressing as a unit and not individuals.

Time for shooting practice!  

Creating chances isn't an issue, but taking our chances is something we must improve on. We fully deserved to take the lead, but knowing how many chances we missed you can understand my concerns that we were going to be punished in the same way as at Abbey Rangers – creating chance after chance but not scoring and letting teams off the hook.

Thankfully in the last 10 minutes Boz’s strong determined run down the right, beating her defender with skill and pace, delivered a fantastic ball in the box Emily got on the end of it for her second goal.

Every goal counts

Emily said to me “My first goal doesn't count.' Like many players, Emily C is a perfectionist and sets high standards. It may not have been as good as your second, but it was on target and that’s all we ask for – it's up to the goalkeeper to save it. I played over 250 games and I got 17 goals – they weren’t all special, but they all count!

Ruby's professional performance

With not a lot to do for long parts of the game, it’s easy for a goalkeeper to lose concentration. Pushing to get our second goal, we left space in behind, but Ruby's positioning to make some very big one-on-one saves was excellent. Ruby was playing like a sweeper, coming out of her box to clear the ball.

What also impressed us was that Ruby was happy for her team-mates to play the ball back to her under pressure. Another was that Ruby played out from the back, passing to her defenders and midfielders so they could then bring the ball upfield. Everyone in the team wants to play good football!

Up next: Fleet Town

On Sunday 25 September we host Fleet Town. We know that Fleet are a very hard-working team who will make life difficult for us: they put four goals past Carshalton. Remember our Six Principles:

• Communication
• Collective Responsibility 
• Trust 
• Care
• Pride
• Smiles and Laughter 

Most importantly... 

I want to say how proud I am of you girls. We can have all the ideas and structure in place, but it's you who has to do it. I can see how hard you are working – you want to learn, you want to improve and you want to win. I know I keep saying this and I will keep saying it, but you are so brilliant – a breath of fresh air. Thank you for being you :-) and to the players’ families and friends, thank you for welcoming me into to your Teddington family! One last request: Please, we all know each other by now – it’s Bondy, not Dale...

Regards, Bondy