Caithness Ladies ‘need to get back to enjoying themselves’
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Head coach Tom McKenna is urging Caithness Ladies to get back to enjoying their football and not put themselves under undue pressure.
He found plenty of positives in the team’s first-half display against Orkney on Sunday, although the islanders went on to claim a 5-1 victory in the SWF Highlands and Islands League fixture at Morrison Park.
That came a week after Orkney won 3-1 at the same venue in the opening round of group ties in the Highlands and Islands League Cup.
Abi Coltherd’s opener for the visitors was cancelled out by captain Carly Erridge but Orkney struck again through Lauren Poke and Ilaria Ferroni to lead 3-1 at the break.
Jessika Brown increased their advantage and Coltherd rounded off the scoring with her second.
“It was a tough game,” McKenna said. “They are a decent team. They’ve got individuals who have got very good quality.
“They’ve got a young lassie [Abi Coltherd] who I think if she lived down in the central belt would be picked up by one of the big clubs.
“This is probably going to sound absolutely mad, but over the first 45 minutes we were probably the better team.
“Over the game we created probably 11 or 12 really good opportunities and we scored one goal. Orkney created seven good opportunities and scored five, and that was the difference.
“In the first half I was really pleased with the girls’ performance. They got the ball down, they were playing the football that got them success last year, there was a confidence about them.
“They really started on the front foot. We had three great opportunities before Orkney scored their first goal but we couldn’t capitalise on our domination of possession.
“I was really chuffed with the way they played in the first half.
“We went in 3-1 down and chasing the game – we lacked that bit of composure.
“The service into the front three wasn’t adequate to get them on the ball and cause problems and we lost our discipline. The girls were getting really frustrated, you could see it in their body language.
“There has always been a demand within the club to improve. There has never been a demand in the club to succeed.
“They’re trying to emulate what they did last year and I said to them, you’ve got to go away and find yourselves. Last year there were no expectations, there was no pressure, nobody was expecting a thing of you and you got a wee bit of success.
“This year everybody is looking at you and there’s a wee bit of pressure on you, there are expectations on you. Let’s get back to just enjoying your football and let’s not put pressure on one another.”
McKenna added: “I’m not going to take anything away from Orkney. They scored five goals, we scored one, so they deserved the three points.”
Caithness Ladies will be looking to bounce back away to Nairn this Sunday.
“There are certain individuals missing but they just need to get back and try to get in the habit of winning and relaxing and just enjoying themselves,” McKenna said.
Erridge will be with the Caithness Krakens at rugby’s Silver Saturday at Murrayfield but could also play a part in the football on Sunday. “She’s going to make an effort to get there,” McKenna said.
Results – SWF Highlands and Islands League: Caithness 1, Orkney 5; Nairn 1, Buckie 5; Ross and Cromarty 2, Clachnacuddin 3.
SWF Highlands and Islands League fixtures – Thursday, April 25: Sutherland v Ross County. Sunday, April 28: Buckie v Clachnacuddin; Nairn v Caithness; Orkney v Sutherland; Ross and Cromarty v Ross County.
