Bolton Wanderers Women made it eight league wins from eight, and 11 from 11 in all competitions, with a 4-2 win over Tranmere Rovers on Sunday. Head Coach Tom Cunniff now takes his side to fourth-placed Nantwich Town for what he calls their toughest test yet.
A first half to savour
Wanderers went back to the same ground where they won the FA Cup tie the week before and they controlled the first half. Lizzy Hamer-Brown and Lauren Sharples scored to make it 2-0 at the break.
“The first half might have been my favourite performance of the season,” said Cunniff. “We were really dominant, with real professional control. The tempo, the ball speed, everything was great. It was everything we’ve been working on. Two really well-worked goals and we looked solid all over the pitch.”
He made no changes to personnel at half-time. He just adjusted a couple of things to protect the clean sheet. Tranmere then went more direct.
“It was quite sensible for what they were doing, because they couldn’t really play football against us,” he said. “They got more bodies forward and tried to get in behind us. It’s a very tight pitch, and the pitch did hurt us at times because we like to use our width and our wingers. We just didn’t adapt to it as well as I thought we would.”
Poppy Wallis scored another well-worked goal to make it 3-0. Then Tranmere scored twice in a ten-minute spell.
“It was two mistakes from us, really,” said Cunniff. “We should have cleared our lines for the first one, and the second was marking from a set piece.”
Molly’s arrow
With a few minutes left and Wanderers under pressure, right back Molly Philpott settled it. Wallis held the ball up and laid it back to her, and she struck it from 25 yards for her first goal of the season.
“It was a very, very good strike,” said Cunniff. “On the video it looks even better than I remember, because it goes in like an arrow. It shows character as well. We could easily have not gone forward, but we countered really well. It was quality: a great pass out, Poppy did really well to hold the ball up, and that’s our full back joining in.”
Leaders all over the pitch
Lizzy Hamer-Brown captained the side because Lucy Walsh had been unwell. Walsh didn’t train in the week but started on the bench and came on. Cunniff says the leadership group his summer recruitment brought in is showing on the pitch.
“That was what we wanted to improve in the summer, and the players coming in have shown it straight away,” he said. “You see it in the results, the training sessions and the atmosphere. It’s so much more professional at the right moments, but everyone gets on and there’s a proper buzz around the place. That leadership helps the younger players come out of their shell a bit more, and Lizzy, Molly Wood, Annabelle and Lucy have been instrumental in that.”
Before the game, Cunniff spoke to Hamer-Brown about being a coach on the pitch. Grace Vella then showed the same quality off the bench.
“Grace was amazing when she came on, keeping people’s heads in the game and not letting them drop,” he said. “We’ve got leaders throughout the team, even among the younger players. Lauren Sharples is an amazing leader, and the younger players are gaining confidence from that.”
An open dialogue
Cunniff says the players take an active part in their own development.
“We have meetings quite often. We’ve got two tonight with players where we’ll show them clips of what they’ve done well this season and what we think they can improve on,” he said. “It’s full, open discussion, and players often come to me after a game for advice. We learn as much as they do sometimes. They’ll tell us about the pictures they were seeing in the game, like a gap between midfield and defence that looks wide open from the sideline but looks narrower to them on the pitch. We’re always open to learning from little details like that.”
Abbie Mackay ready to go
New signing Abbie Mackay joined from Chorley last week. She wasn’t in the squad on Sunday but will be at Nantwich. Mackay is a 24-year-old central defensive midfielder and describes herself as a composed, aggressive player.
“She’s an amazing player, really experienced, with a really good CV behind her,” said Cunniff. “She gained the respect of the team in her very first session, just through the way she plays, her tempo and her talking on the pitch. She’ll be massive for us this season.
“I don’t think you can have too much of that aggression. We could probably have done with it in the last ten minutes on Sunday when we looked a bit leggy. She’ll add energy, and she’ll bring experience to calm things down when we need it. From a technical point of view, she’s very talented too, so we’re looking forward to getting her some minutes.”
Mackay is the latest player to arrive from a higher level, and Cunniff says they share the same reaction.
“Even players who have played much higher than we currently are come in and are surprised by how well it’s run,” he said. “The support everyone gets from the club, the gym programmes, the facilities, the analysis, the effort the coaches put into sessions. A common theme is that not many players have had this, even higher up.”
Nantwich next
Nantwich come into the game fourth in the table after a 3-2 win away at Darwen last weekend.
“It’ll be our toughest test,” said Cunniff. “We respect how well they’re doing and how positive their results have been in recent weeks. But they’ll probably be more worried about us because of our form and what we bring. Our mindset never changes. We go there to win, attack and take the game to them, but we know what their threats are and we’ll work on that this week.
“The squad is so important. If we rotate at all this weekend, or the subs who come on, that will be key, because it’ll be a very tough 90 minutes. If the game isn’t going the way we want, we’ve got leaders on the pitch who can get us back into it.”
Nantwich Town v Wanderers Women kicks off at 2pm on Sunday 18 October.
Photos by Keira Peacock