Notice Board

The club is still keen to speak to experienced players to bolster the squad for our first season in Division 3 of the Essex County Women’s Football League.  Interested players should contact Head Coach Scott Farley on 07 875 577 707 for more information. 

The ECGFL Management Committee has considered the circumstances surrounding the abandoned match against Harlow Town and decided that the score at the time the game was abandoned will count as the final score.

This is the section of the ECGFL Rule Book relating to abandoned matches:

In the event of a match not being played or abandoned owing to causes over which neither Club has control, it shall be played in its entirety on a date to be mutually agreed by the two Clubs and approved by the Management Committee. Failing such agreement and notification to the (Fixtures) Secretary within seven days the Management Committee shall have power to order the match to be played on a named date or on or before a given date.

The Management Committee shall review all abandoned matches and in a case where it is to the advantage of the Competition and does no injustice to either Club, shall be empowered to order the score at the time of the abandonment to stand.

In all cases where the Management Committee are satisfied that a match was abandoned owing to the conduct of one team or its Club member(s) they shall be empowered to award the points for the match to the opponents and take what other action they may deem necessary.

In cases where a match is abandoned owing to the conduct of both teams or their Club members, the Management Committee shall take such action as they consider appropriate. Such action is subject to any disciplinary action taken by the appropriate County Football Association.

In this case the game was abandoned because a Harlow player was injured and it was decided that she should not be moved from where she lay until the emergency services arrived. Because of the time that it took for the ambulance to arrive and the fact that the game had kicked off at 2pm the referee suggested that the game should be abandoned and both managers agreed with his decision.

In normal circumstances I believe that the Management Committee would order the game to be replayed. However, next Sunday, 31st May, is the absolute deadline for completing all outstanding ECGFL fixtures and Harlow Town already have a fixture on that day (vs Leigh Rockets). Whilst Harlow Town will rightly argue that this jeopardises their chances of finishing as runners-up in the league, I believe that the most likely scenario is that the Management Committee will declare the 2-0 score to be the final result.

Our league championship is covered in this week's editions of both the Thurrock Gazette and the Essex Enquirer.  In each case the match report and colour photograph is inside the back page.

To view the online edition of the Essex Enquirer click here (it takes a while to load!).  Once the web page opens click on 'last' at the bottom of the page and then 'previous' to take you to page 47.  Page 46 includes coverage of the U14 and U16 cup final wins.

Check out this link for a few snippets of Wednesday evening’s match with Leigh Rockets and an interview with Scott Farley. At the time of this posting the video was towards the bottom of the home page of the site but it may be moved to the ‘sport’ page later.

Training  sessions will now revert to the back field at Rookery Hill from 6:45pm until 8:00pm every Tuesday and Thursday until the cup final.  Players are reminded that they should let us know in advance if they are unable to train for any reason.

We were advised today (11th March) that Stevenage Borough will be unable to fulfil their scheduled fixture against us on Sunday because of a lack of players.  To be fair to Stevenage, they did advise us on Monday that there was a strong possibility of this happening, but everyone was keeping their fingers crossed for the game to go ahead.

Like ourselves, Stevenage are operating with a small squad this season - just 15 players - and have been reduced to only 12 players in recent weeks by three long term injuries.  This weekend two players are away with their school and their two 18 year olds, who are dual-registered, have been called into the senior ladies squad for a game in the premier division of the Eastern Region Women's Football League.  Not surprisingly they are unwilling to play us with only eight players! 

The League will award the win to us and Stevenage will probably be fined.  This will be ratified at the next League Committee meeting on 12th April.

Following the departure of Sophie Mingay (see News), the club is seeking a goalkeeper to act as understudy to Layla Prior.  This position would suit a young player who is seeking to improve and develop her technique with a higher level club.  Whilst there might be restricted opportunities to start League games this season, the club has a specialist goalkeeping coach who works with the goalkeeper(s) at all training sessions.  This intensive coaching would greatly benefit  the development of any up-and-coming young goalkeeper.  Sophie Mingay was awarded our 'Most Improved Player of the Year' accolade last season.