Lincoln Ladies season review 2012

Review Lincoln Ladies season 2012

As ever when a side’s season ends, it’s only normal that fans pause, look back, and reflect on what happened, why it happened, what we did well, and what we did wrong. It’s a week since the curtain came down on Lincoln Ladies’ 2012 season so now that the dust has settled I thought that it would be a good time to look back on the season and share a few of my thoughts and observations about the season just gone.

Keeping them out

Pic thanks to Rob Waite.

The side only used one keeper during the season; Nic Hobbs, and for my money she was as solid as any keeper in the league this season. Her finest game was probably in the 3-3 draw at home to Arsenal when she made a string of fine saves during the last 20 minutes when the gunners were really turning the screw. She had some rotten luck at times this season with a couple of wicked deflections costing us at times (Liverpool and Everton) And of course the unfortunate back pass incident v Liverpool in the Continental cup.  Lincoln, at times, struggled to defend corners (as did most other sides in this league it has to be said) this was due partly to us defending very deep and with lots of bodies at the back, so it often made it hard for Nic to claim the ball and quite often when the ball was punched clear our defence failed to pick up the loose ball. This can look bad on the keeper when in reality there isn’t a whole lot more they can do.
Her finest save of the season came in the defeat at Doncaster when she pulled off a fantastic one-on-one save when the Imps were 1-2 down thus keeping the game alive.  In my view Nic has done more than enough to be our number one again next season but I would like us to have the reserve keeper on the bench should Nic get injured or sent off.

The case for the defence:

Going into the season the defensive aspect of Lincoln’s squad was very impressive. Both Casey Stoney and Sophie Bradley are seasoned international defenders and with the addition of another international central defender; Laura Alleway, over the winter, it seemed that the Imps had a very strong core to the defence which is vital to any team. However Sophie Bradley’s ankle injury which kept her out of the first few games was a blow for both the Imps and England. It looked as if Lincoln would be fine though as Laura Alleway put in a fantastic performance in the FA Cup game at home to Arsenal alongside Casey Stoney. However shortly after this, problems soon emerged with Laura’s VISA which meant that she was unable to play for almost two thirds of the campaign. This did give a chance to another of the new signings; Meaghan Sargeant , who came in and slotted into the backline with ease for the next few matches. While we struggled for consistency in personnel at centre back, the full back positions were pretty well set for the season with Sophie Walton at right back and Rachel Daly at left back. The latter’s pace being a real asset when going forward and helped to set up many a Lincoln attack. Sophie is much more ‘a stay at home’ full back but had a very steady season and was on the end of one of the worst refereeing decisions of the season when she collected a red card in the last game of the season.
One of the highpoints of the Lady Imp’s season was the 4-3 away cup win against Arsenal and again this saw another makeshift back line, as Casey Stoney was on the bench due to injury. Ironically without their three first choice central defenders Lincoln won the game, with Sophie Barker dropping back into the defence. Casey returned for the next game with the Gunners which saw another good performance from Lincoln in a 3-3 draw. Sophie Bradley made her return to first team action from the bench in the next game against Doncaster, and from then on she and Stoney were the first choice partnership in the centre of the defence. As you can imagine with all the changes to the back line the Imps struggled to keep the goals out; conceding two at home to Birmingham, three at home to Arsenal twice, and two to Doncaster, who up until that point were yet to get a win. Even with the first choice back line in place Lincoln still conceded on a regular basis and only managed to keep two clean sheets all season (1-0 away at Bristol and 2-0 at home to Chelsea) At home the Imps seemed a little sloppy at the back with Bristol scoring three and Liverpool also getting three on two separate occasions. Thankfully though Lincoln had no problem in finding the net at the other end.
 It’s really hard to say why we let in so many goals.  Some were down to pure bad luck; the two own goals v Liverpool for example, or we were on the receiving end of great strikes from the opposition.  You can’t just blame the back line and keeper though. Sides defend and attack as a team and this Lincoln team was a very attack minded side with plenty of players that liked to get forward. So I believe this is why we conceded quite a few goals.  Our positive attacking outlook certainly was a hit with the neutrals. If you wanted to see games with goals in, then Lincoln Ladies were the team for you.

The middle of the park:

The midfield area of the side saw some of the best individual performances of the season.  Remi Allen and Lucy Staniforth both had excellent seasons and were central to the campaign. Remi is the side’s ball winner and the workhorse in the Imps midfield. It would be wrong just to think of her as a defensive midfielder and ball winner though as she has grabbed a few goals from open play, and her penalty kicks are right up there with the very best in the FAWSL. Her work rate is first class and looks like she can hardly walk at the end of the game due to the amount of effort she puts into her game.  If a youngster wanted to know how to be a midfielder, I would simply say watch Remi Allen and learn from her. You won’t go far wrong.
Lucy Staniforth was the side’s set piece specialist and a real class act. Her corners and free kicks were a major weapon in Lincoln’s arsenal and caused other sides problems.  The ones that stand out were those against Arsenal; when the gunners defence was all over the place at corner kicks with some of the corners whipped in right under the crossbar, the finest of which being the one that set up Meaghan Sargeant’s header in the 4-3 win. She, like the rest of the Lincoln midfield, also notched a few goals from open play, with her long range screamer against Everton being best.  For much of the first part (of the season) Remi and Lucy were joined in the midfield by Megan Harris and Australian international Collette McCallum. Megan will go down in Lady Imp’s history for scoring that winning goal against Arsenal and giving the club probably its best ever win. She seems to have found the knack for scoring goals and chipped in a few along the way. It took Collette a few matches to adjust to the pace and style of the game in the FAWSL but when she did her left foot added some real balance to the midfield. It was a shame to lose her and break up a unit that had served the side so well during the first part of the season.
Her departure was a bit of a head ache and the midfield was never as settled for the second part of the season. After the break for the Olympics, you never really knew who was going to be playing in midfield for a while. In the end Sophie Barker got the nod and the Imps picked up in the last few games once the midfield was settled. Bonnie Horwood had a stop start season but did little wrong when she did play and scored a good goal away at Birmingham City. Along the way this season youngsters Emily Roberts, Martha Harris, and Holly Crosby also got on the field of play and didn’t let anybody down.

Attack Attack Attack!!!

Looking at the balance of the squad at the start of the season the one area when I felt we were a little light was in the striking department. We had Jess Clarke and Carla Cantrell from last season. New signing Precious Hamilton form Doncaster and young New Zealand striker Katie Rood.  The first choice pairing being Precious and Jess for much of the season.
I know that I am going to sound like a bit of a fan boy here, but there is no other way of putting this. Jess Clarke is in my view the key player for Lincoln Ladies Football club. If she plays well (and more often than not she does) then Lincoln Ladies play well.  She is by far and away the quickest player we have, her pace has given other side’s defensive nightmares all season long. Alex Scott of Arsenal is seen by some as the best full back in England, but Jess took her to the cleaners three times this season turning her inside out on each occasion, so much so that after starting in the 4-3 match she was dropped for the following league match and only came on once Jess had gone off injured. The way many sides seem to try and stop her is simple. Foul her. Time and time again she has been singled out for rough treatment and given little or no protection by the referees, with those at  Arsenal and Birmingham being the most cynical. After the injury sustained against Arsenal in the league, the Imps form dropped off both in terms of performance and results. We won one out of the four league games that she missed which is a lot when you only play 14 league games. With Jess gone the only real pace in the side was that of Rachel Daly at full back. In Jess’ absence Carla Cantrell joined Precious Hamilton up front.

Carla is a good target player and is a great finisher (see her goal of the month at home to Chelsea) but in some ways she is very similar to Precious. Precious herself suffered from Jess being out of action as her main source of service dried up. Once Jess came back the goals started to flow again. Although both Carla and Precious worked their socks off for the team we just didn’t seem to have the cutting edge up front and at times both of them dropped off too deep to be a threat.  I would have liked to have seen a little more of Katie Rood this season.  From what we did see she looked to be a quick, nippy kind of striker who harassed defenders. Although from only getting 10-20 minutes worth of action here and there it’s hard to give a real assessment. I certainly feel an opportunity was lost by not giving her the whole of the second half v Bristol when the Imps were 1-3 down and looking toothless up front.  That game also saw the most sheepish re-emergence of a team at halftime I have ever seen. It would have been very interesting to have been a fly on the wall during that halftime break.
Precious finished as the side’s top scorer and had a great season. It was a great piece of scouting and research to sign her from Doncaster where she only bagged the one goal all season long. She is powerful, can hold defenders off and has a great finish. She is also the side’s maverick player as you are never totally sure as to what she is going to do.  She certainly has got a great partnership with Jess going and together the two of them work very well. More of the same next season please.

Summing up

At the start of the season the Imps had aimed to finished second and thus get into the Champions League. Why did we fall short? Well in my view it’s down to two things. Firstly the fact that we couldn’t field a settled back four for the first third of the season, and secondly the injury to Jess. If you look at the league as a whole you would have to say that Arsenal were clearly much better than everybody else, with Birmingham just a bit behind. You then had four sides; Everton, Chelsea, Bristol, and Lincoln who were pretty well matched and kept tripping over each other. I really don’t think there was anything to choose between the four of us.  At the bottom we find Liverpool and Doncaster and the missing points that cost Lincoln. Both were poor sides (although Donny did pick up a tad towards the end of the season) But Lincoln only managed to gain 4 points from 12 available against the basement sides.  The home game with Liverpool was a real hammer blow. We went 2-0 up then they go it back to 2-2. We then took the lead again but went on to concede a penalty deep into added time to make it 3-3.
Something else that didn’t help us was playing seven cup and league home games on the trot, thus giving the fixture list a lopsided look and really putting the pressure on the team when we had a run of away games towards the back end of the season.
On the plus side the best thing about this side was the team’s never say die attitude. Even when everything was going against us, the girls never gave up and gave it 100%. You could not fault this side for effort at any point during the season. This is a very young side with only one player over 30 but the potential is simply huge. And it has been a pleasure to follow them along the way.

Best and worst of.

Player of the season (my own view)

1) Remi Allen

2) Sophie Bradley

3) Rachel Daly

Young player of the season

Meaghan Sargeant

Best games seen this season

1) Lincoln 4-3 Arsenal

2) Lincoln 3-3 Arsenal

3) Chelsea 2-3 Lincoln

Goal of the season.

1) Megan Harris v Arsenal

2) Precious Hamilton v Birmingham 

3) Lucy Staniforth v Everton.

Best opposition player seen this season. 

1) Jess Fishlock (Bristol)

2) Leandra Little (Doncaster)

3) Rachel Yankey (Arsenal)

My Lincoln Ladies team of the season.

1) Nic Hobbs

2) Rachel Daly

3) Sophie Walton

4) Remi Allen

5) Casey Stoney

6) Sophie Bradley

7) Lucy Staniforth

8) Megan Harris

9) Collette McCallum

10) Jess Clarke

11) Precious Hamilton