Becky sees Merritt in West Ham Ladies Academy

West Ham Ladies are opening an Academy for September and are recruiting now. Writing for Blowing Bubbles, forward Becky Merritt explains how the Academy happened, how tough it has been and what it means for the club.

After losing our under 19 development squad to lack of funding a couple of  seasons ago, there has been  limited opportunities for our under 16 graduates to progress into senior football and some have found the jump to reserves and first team a little too daunting.

With this in mind, we wanted to create an opportunity where we could bridge the gap for our young stars and the Academy seemed to be an excellent opportunity for this.

Mikey Cartwright/Ponderosa Pix

Seeing that I already work in football academies with a company called Soccer Coaching Limited, I had the best people around me to start this exciting venture.

With the expertise of SCL and the passion of the management at West Ham, we have formed a strong partnership and aim to propel West Ham Ladies into the spotlight and be the best that we can be.

Starting anything from scratch is never easy, but we have the best people on board to make our ideas reality.

We have managed to secure a state-of-the-art venue for training and education as well as employing excellent coaching staff.

We have also been lucky to have the support of many people to help with our recruitment process and our hard work is paying off.

We have a number of girls applying for trials from well-established teams and we hope this interest grows.

The Academy, first and foremost, will allow us to have more coaching time with our players where our excellent coaching staff can develop the young girls into better players.

Training every day and playing at least one game a week will ensure our players develop far quicker. These players can hopefully progress to represent our first team, who have recently submitted a bid to join the
Women’s Super League.

As a self-sustaining club, our funding will allow the club as a whole to develop and grow. With a regular source of funding into the club we can help make our ambitions more achievable.

Women’s football has grown substantially over the last few years. There is a real buzz around the game at the moment and, with the success of Team GB in the Olympics and the current WSL, this is only set to grow.

As clubs are creating their own centre of excellence or academies this ensures that more young females are receiving regular coaching at a high level and therefore meaning, that as a nation, we are developing potential stars for the future.

Also, as clubs continue to provide these opportunities it will allow them to retain these players and lower the risk of losing excellent talents to big named teams.

Any current year 11 females interested in combining a college education with the professional football training lifestyle should register for trials on www.scl-online.co.uk

Our first trial will be taking place on Wednesday April 10from 3 to 5 pm and will be held at the West Ham Community Trust, Beckton.

Goal machine Hannah Gowland is huge loss to West Ham Ladies

After joining the West Ham Ladies at the end of October, Hannah Gowland was keen to quickly show manager Julia Setford what she is capable of.

The wet weather at the end of 2012 limited the amount of games she could play in so she gave everything in training in the hope of securing a place in the side for the first few games of the New Year.

Her determination was rewarded as she started and scored two goals against London Corinthians in the FA Cup on January 6 before scoring a goal in the league win over Gillingham the following weekend.

Mikey Cartwright/Ponderosa Pix

The 18-year-old then kept her place for the tough FA Cup trip to Leeds and again was on the scoresheet but her efforts weren’t enough to stop the Ladies being dumped out of the competition earlier this month.

The former Colchester United star then bagged a hat-trick as the Ladies stormed to a 13-2 victory in the county cup quarter final against Witham Town the week after to take her goal spree to seven goals in four games.

But now the teenager is set to endure a period on the sidelines after sustaining an ankle injury in the Ladies county cup semi-final defeat to her former club.

Speaking of her decision to join West Ham, Hannah said: “Lily Mellors and I were at Colchester United together and we weren't enjoying it as much as we used to and we wanted a new challenge.

“We had quite a bit of success at Col U but wanted something different. Lily had a training session with West Ham and afterwards she said how much she enjoyed it so I went with her the next week and loved it there and wanted to sign for them.

“It was fun but the sessions felt like I learnt something new from them. The other thing which impressed me was that all the girls turn up for training which is great because you can work on things as a team. I was delighted to join.”

She added: “The whole team has welcomed me and helped me to settle. I already knew April Bowers, Danica Revell and Rosey Sullivan and was familiar with rest of team because I've played against them a few times.”

Asked about the Ladies’ chances of promotion this season, the forward continued: “I think we've got a good chance of getting promoted because we're up there with games in hand.”

She added she didn’t know exactly how long her ankle injury would keep her out of action but she said she is determined to play again as soon as possible.

The West Ham United Ladies play their home games at Thurrock FC (RM19 1YN). For details of future games visit www.clubwebsite.co.uk/westhamunitedladiesfc.

West Ham Ladies manager Julia Setford’s praise for new signings Hannah Gowland and Lily Mellors ahead of FA Cup clash

West Ham Ladies' manager Julia Setford has lauded the impact of her new signings as the team prepare to take on Leeds United in the Fourth Round of the FA Women’s Cup.

The Hammers head into the game on the back of consecutive wins over Gillingham and London Corinthians, and will fancy their chances to progress in the competition.

New signings from Colchester United, Hannah Gowland and Lily Mellors have made an instant impact since arriving late last year and manager Setford couldn't be happier with their progress.

Mikey Cartwright/Ponderosa Pix

"The two girls I brought in, I knew they were quality,” she said. “They've settled in well and really proved themselves."

The two new recruits have really strengthened the Hammers side, according to their boss.

"Their finishing, especially Hannah's, is second to none” the gaffer continued. “She's a left-footed player and she brings a nice balance to the team; together with Lily's vision, it's really boosted our numbers and made us strong."

The team's recent form is particularly impressive given the frustrations they have faced of late, mainly down to the adverse weather conditions.

The Ladies have only been able to complete four games since November, but hopefully the worst of the bad weather is over now and the Leeds game will bring glorious sunshine and a third win on the trot for the in-form Irons, with more sparkling performances from the two new signings.

The Hammers have never lifted the trophy, nor even reached a final since its inauguration in 1971, and that will be sure to be something that manager Setford will want to put right this season.

With only two defeats so far in the league, the Hammers are also sitting pretty at fourth in the table - just five points off leaders Reading.

A fantastic seven match unbeaten run between September and October has been the highlight in the league for Setford’s side so far, but the most outstanding thing has been the Irons’ resistance to defeat and their “bouncebackability”.

Centre back Danica Revells’s praise for new signings and captain Rosey Sullivan

The West Ham Ladies have had a fantastic start to 2013, comfortably beating London Corinthians away in the cup and Gillingham away in league.

The Ladies return to cup action this weekend at home to Witham Town where they hope to extend their unbeaten run in all competitions to five games.

Speaking exclusively to Blowing Bubbles, centre back Danica Revell has been delighted with how the side has started the year after a frustrating end to 2012 where the Ladies endured a run of cancelled games because of the weather.

Mikey Cartwright/Ponderosa Pix

She has also been pleased to see the Ladies’ new signings get the chance to show what they can offer the team.

Reflecting on the Ladies season, she said: “We have had games where we haven’t played up to the high standards we know we are capable of but most of the time we’ve done really well this season. We’ve got great team spirit.”

The return of striker Kelley Blanchflower has also pleased the centre half. Kelley broke her collarbone during the Ladies’ 2-0 win at QPR in September.

“Kel has been training really hard and was doing really well in training before she got back in the team,” Danica continued.
“I’m delighted to see her come back. It’s a huge boost for us because we will need her scoring goals to help with our push for promotion.”

She added: “We’re still very much in the fight for promotion and hopefully, fingers crossed, we will get it. If we keep putting in the hard effort and not let it slip, then we will be pushing for promotion right till the end of the season.”

Danica’s partnership with captain Rosey Sullivan has been the subject of huge praise from her teammates as have their individual performances.

“I have a great partnership with Rosey,” Danica said. “We’ve played together for a couple of years now and we also went to the academy at Leyton Orient.

“We know each other’s game, inside out and play the same way. We also get along really well, which I think has been key to some of our performances this season.”

Since joining the Hammers back in the summer of 2010, Danica feels her time with the club has been the best period of her career so far, highlighted by being named West Ham United Ladies ‘Young Player of the Year’ last season.

She concluded: “I feel that I am developing towards my full potential and have found my place within the team. I am thoroughly enjoying being part of the West Ham team. We all get on very well and although we train extremely hard, we also have a lot of laughs throughout training.”

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.”