Bootle FC Women's Manager, Alex Garbe’s Thoughts ahead of Clay Brow

Photos: Kate Tencza

Alex, happy new year, How would you assess the first half of the season for the girls?

Thank you! Happy New Year to you too. I think the word to describe has been inconsistent but positive. If you would have said at the start of pre-season that we would have a completely new squad, which we are still adding to, we are sat around mid-table but if we win our games in hand you move up into where we want to be challenging for, then it is positive.

However there is no doubt at all that we lack consistency. We went on a decent run with a good win away at St. Helens, a defeat at Vulcan however a good performance, a draw in the cup where we were solid for 92 minutes, and then a win at Sefton - that is consistency. However, where we are struggling now is the likes of the Parklands away game, the Hesketh draw at home - where we can take advantage of fixtures but we are not.

I don’t think that is fully down to performance at times, I think that is also down to the lack of games played. I understand weather concerns and pitch issues but over the Christmas period we have now gone 42 days without a game from Hesketh at home to Clay Brow at home this Sunday - so we are really excited to get back out there.

How important will consistency and maintaining momentum be for the squad as you head into the second half of the season?

It is massive. As I mentioned before consistency is where we have lacked slightly over recent months but it is looking positive now.

We have conceded too many goals this season so far and that is something that we have worked on. At training, we’ve analysed, gone over goals, and worked on it so we are hoping that come the first game this Sunday we can solidify it up at the back and work on going forwards as a unit.

Momentum is massive in football, and as soon as we can put a little run on the bounce knowing we can now regularly play every week without a break, we are really looking forward to it.

It’s been a quiet few weeks for the team with the postponement of our league fixture against St Helens in December, and have gone over a month without playing. What preparations have you made for the girls ahead of their return to action?

It has been tough without playing games of football as that is what everyone here wants to do. We trained twice per week throughout the majority of December with no games and then had a few team bonding sessions off the pitch too.

We returned to training on Sunday 4th January and had a really strong two hour session to try and blow the cobwebs off. Everyone trained excellently and at the time of writing (Wednesday) we are approaching another big 90 minute session this evening to make sure that we are fully prepared for the cup game against Clay Brow on Sunday afternoon.

Two huge cup games up first, What would a strong cup run mean for Bootle FC Women as a team and as a club?

I think it is massively important to win any game of football, whether it is a pre-season friendly or a cup final. At the end of the day, winning breeds confidence and we have a strong changing room who all want to pull together in the same direction.

I think across the course of the last few months, we’ve been okay in parts but we’ve never maximised the potential of this group. It is my job to ensure we can get the best out of every individual within the team and we are working on doing that. We are raring to go for Sunday and can’t wait to hopefully go and get a win to kick off the year.