There were no goals scored, but there was no shortage of action in Macleay Valley Rangers’ Coastal League One Women’s opening round 0-all draw with Sawtell on Friday night.
Rangers had the best of the chances in an entertaining first half, but they also lived on the edge with numerous goal-line clearances from former Kempsey Saints defender Rhiannon McIntyre.
Captain Heidi Tamblyn was proud of the way her girls scrapped and worked hard in defence to maintain their clean sheet.
“We were living right on the edge,” she said.
“One of the girls stopped the ball going in two or three times in the space of five seconds at one stage so there were a couple of moments where we got a bit lucky.
“In every other sense of the game we worked hard defensively and filled in the gaps to make everything work. That was the reason we did manage to keep it nil-all.”
Tamblyn admitted fitness was a factor as they started to run out of energy where their legs became heavy in the second half on the synthetic pitch at Coffs Harbour.
“In the first half we had a handful of really good opportunities and we were knocking the ball around really well so I think we did everything pretty well,” she said.
“It was just the fitness wasn’t there and we had to work that extra little bit hard defensively to keep the clean sheet and get the job done.”
Overall, Tamblyn was excited about the new competition and felt it would help Rangers achieve more as a team.
Previously they had cruised through the Football Mid North Coast competition with an expectation they were going to win every week.
“It is a challenge; it’s not just like another day at the office and it’s cruisy. If we want to win we have to work really hard and we’ve got to be clinical,” she said.
“It would be nice for girls who are more competitive in the younger years will now have a really high standard to work towards which is important for developing women’s football in our area.
“I can see in the future we’re the only team who has transitioned from Football Mid North Coast.
“If more teams transition I think the whole standard of women’s football hopefully around this area will continue to grow and improve.”
Rangers will now have a fortnight off due to the Easter break and a second-round bye on April 23.
“I think it will be beneficial for us because we’ve had the first game and got the nerves out of the way and now have a bit more of an idea what to expect,” Tamblyn said.
“We can go away, we can train, we have a couple of weeks to get more of a baseline fitness happening and then we can go forward from there.
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