Frustration as weather halts West Ham Ladies promotion bid

As the West Ham Ladies prepare to take to the pitch again after their Christmas break, there is an air of frustration amongst the squad still hoping to secure promotion this season.

The Ladies resume their season on Sunday in a cup game against London Corinthians but they will have to wait until the following week to return to league action.

The Ladies are currently fifth in the Premier League Southern Division but have only played seven games so far this season while their promotion rivals have all played more.

Mikey Cartwright/Ponderosa Pix

Their four wins, one draw and two defeats means they are currently eight points adrift from leaders Reading but the Ladies can cut this to two points by winning their games in hand.

Their last league outing on November 18 saw them thrash Tottenham Hotspur Ladies 3-0 but the bad weather saw the rest of their games for 2012 called off and prevented them continuing their unbeaten run heading into Christmas.

Speaking exclusively to Blowing Bubbles, centre back Danica Revell said: “It has been really annoying to not have played since November. We thought all the games were going to go ahead on the day and got all ready to go only to then get the call to say the game was off.

“It has been very frustrating for all of us because we want to be out there winning games. Despite this, we’ve still been training hard and doing a lot of fitness but it isn’t the same as actually playing games and having match fitness.”

She added: “We’re still fighting for promotion and, I believe, we will get it if we keep putting in the hard effort and ensure we play to the high standards we know we are capable of.”

Meanwhile forward Becky Merritt added: “We are currently sitting in fifth but we’ve only played seven games while others have played like 10 or 12. So providing we capitalize on these games in hand, our bid for promotion is still on course.

“It’s been massively frustrating to not play but we were quite lucky that over the Christmas period we were able to train indoors at Chadwell Health which which I hope will give us a huge advantage when we start playing again in the New Year.

“We hit a good run of form before the games started being called off so I am now hoping we can hit the ground running in the New Year and start getting the wins we need.”

She added: “The positives from the first half of the season have to be the youngsters coming through and the signings we have made.

“The negatives, for me, were the lack of games and our loss against Millwall on the opening game of the season.

“The latter is something which has bugged me all season and something I hope to put right when we play them again.”