New season, new faces, new attitude

And so to season four. The Teddington players who started out as primary school ankle-biters are now closing in on their GCSE years, and the team faces new challenges.

For the first time, this season they won’t be able to call upon two former mainstays of the team, Ella Waldron and Phoebe Head. Brilliantly, both have ben picked up by professional teams – skipper Jelly by Brighton & Hove Albion, all-time top scorer Pheebs by Millwall.

Obviously the much-loved pair will be missed, on the field and off, but they go with our best wishes and will may still be around to support the girls. And as two leave, two new faces have joined the squad. Giula Clini is a midfielder/forward who has recently moved to the area, while defender Hannah Hutchison has switched from AFC Wimbledon. They are both very welcome, as are their families.

Any team would miss the qualities of Jelly and Pheebs but this is a great chance for the girls to show personal growth, and to take more responsibility. We have dealt before with losing players: it simply means more opportunity for others.

Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes

We will be playing a slightly new formation this season which we hope will make the most of the talented players at our disposal. For this season we also have the services of Dale Bond, an experienced coach who has worked with Brentford and LA Galaxy among other clubs. The girls have already taken to Dale – perhaps, as manager Dave Waldron freely admits, it’s nice to hear a new voice – and he will be bringing his enthusiasm and organisation to what is already a very well-run team.

In another change for this season, we will usually only be taking three substitutes per game. This is to make sure that all substitutes get a decent run-out during the game rather than kicking their heels on the touchline while we juggle formations and personnel.

Each player getting more game-time will place extra demands on their stamina. The girls are strongly encouraged to do some fitness during the week; Carla and her sister are happy to host regular sessions, and advice will be freely available from the management.

Responsibilities

With a matchday squad of 14 selected (on a Friday night after training) from a squad of 16, two girls will be unused every week. As ever, this will fairly distributed around the squad and will obviously include allowances for absences due to other activities. On the other hand, absence from Friday training will usually make the management’s squad selection decisions much easier. The girls will need to be on the ball this season.

After requests from many clubs (including ours), the league has decided to experiment with playing fixtures on the SECOND Sunday of each half-term – ie the day before most kids return to school. (For instance, they have already arranged a cup game, at home to Milford Pumas for Sun 30 Oct.) If it’s possible to bear this in mind when booking holidays, that would be very much appreciated, but we know these things aren’t always easy. Please keep Dave and Lisa informed of players’ availability via the Doodle poll – remember this is editable if circumstances change.

Our aims for the season will remain private for now, but our intention remains the same as ever: to help the girls grow as footballers and as people; to help them become adaptable footballers who can play in different positions; not to pick the most powerful players for short-term gain, rather to give a variety of young women a set of skills they might use for the rest of their lives, both on and off the field.

First game

The Premier Division is again an eight-team league in which we’ll play everyone three times. There are two changes, with Carshalton Athletic and Hampton Youth promoted; they will replace South Park and one of the Crystal Palace teams. Preliminary indications are that it is the champions, Palace Reds, who have left.

The season starts with some fascinating clashes between some of the stronger teams remaining from last year’s top flight. We start at Abbey Rangers, while AFC Wimbledon host Maidenhead; next week, Maidenhead host Abbey; then Abbey travel to Wimbledon.

So for the fourth successive season we start at Abbey’s ground in Addlestone.  It's a 1pm kick-off, so we would like players to be there (in home kit, not tour kit) at noon sharp. Let’s start as we mean to go on, being organised and giving ourselves the best chance of achieving our goals. The address is Addlestone Moor, Surrey, KT15 2QH; map here.