Arsenal at Cressing Road on Sunday

[dav]

Firstly a massive massive thank you to everyone who has volunteered their services for the Ladies game against Arsenal on Sunday, whether that be stewards, turnstile operators, programme sellers or PA announcers (Ash you do remember you agreed, right )

For those not volunteering just a quick heads up. We are going to charge for admission for this game in order to raise a bit of money for the Jodie Willan Fund. Jodie was a youngster who played for Silver End with a number of our current squad and she very sadly lost he brief fight with Meningitis in April.

The club have been brilliant in allowing us to host a memorial game between Jodie's former Silver End teammates and her Sandon school side and this will follow the Arsenal game. I know we've said it before but the backing Lee and the Board give the Ladies team is second to none in the county and being at the heart of the local community is where this club should be.

I genuinely haven't got a clue about how many fans to expect, but given the number of people who have said they were interested, and the emails and queries I've had from across the county it should be a decent turn out.

The turnstiles should be open from around 1pm, and tickets are available on the gate priced £5 for adults and £1 for U16's, programmes will be available and Arsenal and Colchester United have both donated signed shirts as raffle prizes - along with a signed Braintree shirt as well!

See you all Sunday

[ashonthepa]

fear not DC I will be there to support the ladies please confirm the KO time.

One favour, please can you let me have the teams 30 mins before kick off.

Cheers see you Sat and Sunday

[castIRONgooner]

Ash its a 2pm kick off, ladies are meeting at 12 so will be out to warm up about 12:45ish

[ashonthepa]

at a £1 a pop lets get as many youngsters to this game for the very good cause. Please support this event tomorrow.

[cm7]

wont be there but good luck to the ladies, be a big ask for them but a fantastic experience!

[cm7]

How did the girls get on?

[Stuart R]

They lost 14-0, but Arsenal was very impressive.

[cm7]

To be honest I thought keeping it below 10 would be a good result, they win most Premier League games by 5 or 6 dont they?

[dav]

Firstly to Lee, Alan, Ash, Chrissie, Terry and every single person who helped out with today - THANK YOU.

Ok Arsenal narrowly edged the game, until that thirteenth went in we were right in the game but in all seriousness Arsenal fielded just about as strong a lineup as they could and were superb.

Today wasn't just about the game though, as most of you know we set out to raise some money for the Jodie Willan Fund - www.bit.ly/jodiewillanfund - and thanks to the 406 people who came through the turnstiles and a massive amount raised on the raffle (and it wasn't just Mr Hopkinson trying to win the signed Arsenal shirt) we were able to raise more than £1000 for the charity.

I'm genuinely both touched, and chuffed to bits, that we got such fantastic support and to raise that sort of money is incredible and it would not have been possible without the support of the club and the board of directors.

For the record the lineups were:

Braintree Town		Arsenal
Hannah Streetley	1	Emma Byrne - Ireland International
Laken Duchar-Clark	2	Niamh Fahey - Ireland International
Dani Croxford	3	Gilly Flaherty - England U19 International
Jodie Osborne	4	Jayne Ludlow - Wales Captain
Kallie Ferrari	5	Ciara Grant - Ireland Captain
Helena Golding	6	Yvonne Tracy - Scotland Captain
Chloe Argent	7	Gemma Davison - - England International
Ella Tooley	8	Becky Anderson
Nicola Carty	9	Ellen White - England International
Zoe Rushen	10	Danielle Carter - England U19 International
Aimee Drane	11	Lauren Bruton - England U19 International
Jessie Anderson	12	Billie Murphy - England U17 International
Layla Prior	13	---
Beth Irwin	14	Brooke Nunn
---	15	Bianca Bragg - England U17 International
Kayleigh Peters	16	Kim Little - Scotland International
Laura Hill	17	Taylor O'Leary - England U17 International
Daniella Taylor	18	Hannah Short - England U17 International

[ozbrit]

It sounds like you all had a wonderful day, Well done Dav and everyone else for arranging this, not forgetting our terrific Ladies. A great advertisement for our Club, just fantastic !

[jimbo]

Sadly another female ( a daughter needing some TLC) took priority. Full credit to Arsenal for sending such a powerful team and taking the game seriously and going for the kill. I am sure our ladies will greatly benefit from the encounter and will have learnt a lot for their future development. I am sure that the club will do something special to thank Arsenal for all their help and for assisting in raising so much money.

I can see the link to the charity and I will be sending a donation direct. I hope others who could not be there in person will join me.

[ironlover]

www.youtube.com/watch?v=FTDPCXzHSGQ&feature=channel

[jimbo]

Bloody hell! I have seen women's football on the TV, usually the FA cup final between the two best teams in the country, and always enjoyed the quality of the football and the goals - Arsenal played as if they were in the final and their bonuses depended on the win. I do hope our ladies were inspired rather than intimidated. If my old dutch lets me out, may be I will be coming down to see our ladies playing against teams at their own level.

[dav]

First game at Cressing Road is Sunday week (29th August) vs Cambridge United Jimbo, you'd be more than welcome . The ladies kicked off their season with a hard earned draw at Luton Town today, there are video clips of the goals:
Here - Zoe makes it 2-1 - www.youtube.com/watch?v=8oAPhLF5lhg
and here - Ella grabs the equaliser - www.youtube.com/watch?v=rGz0nC2uw1E