Collier: Ruthless Aggression Required In SWPL Battle

Gemma Collier felt disappointed following Sunday’s loss to Stirling University and reckons Forfar Farmington need to be ruthless on the park to pick up points.

The result leaves Forfar four points adrift at the bottom of the Scottish Women’s Premier League but Collier believes the squad can turn things around in the final seven games of the season.

The 25 year old feels that the side played better in the second half on Sunday after a poor first half performance but still need to take their chances more often.

Collier said: “I thought Sunday’s game was disappointing. In the first half we were second to most 50-50’s and just didn’t punish Stirling when we had the chance to go forward. That’s something I think we need to do in this league, we need to be more clinical and aggressive; teams in this league don’t just hand out points, we need to work every minute of the game to earn them. The second half was better in that we were on the attack more, we used the width more and switches of play were better. It is just a bit disappointing that game was there to be won.”

The defender was neither pleased or annoyed with her performance but still pinpointed minor details she reckons she needed to work on.

“I thought I managed to do the job that was asked of me, there are always things to look back and improve upon. I could have won more first time balls and played through the midfield a bit more but I didn’t come out of the game thinking I had a nightmare. That is always a positive I guess.”

Collier was a part of the squad that completed the great escape last season and she believes they can repeat their performance as long as they concentrate on one game at a time.

“It is definitely not a hard task to stay up, far from it. I look at where the club was this time last season; people had written us off for being in the bottom four to go out of the league and we won nine out of our ten last games to stay up. We need to stop thinking about relegation, our points and league position as that’s when nerves creep in and we need to focus on the 90 minutes of football that’s in front of us each week. If we perform on the park and get at teams, points will take care of themselves. We are more than capable, we just need some self belief and aggression.”

Experience is something that could be key to survival, Collier reckons, and while some squad members have experience through years of playing, others such as Amy Gallacher could draw on their experience of high pressure games.

She said: “The likes of Nicola and Ralphi are so much more experienced and bring so much to the team. I do think experience in teams is vital at testing times. However, I don’t always feel it necessarily comes from the older players in the team; Amy Gallacher has been on international duty recently and probably has more experience of the game and experience of high pressured games than a lot of players so it can also come from the likes of her.”

“With Amy being the age she is, the girls can especially relate to her. Everyone is in it together and experience comes in different forms but we need to work together.”

The defender also wanted to praise those who have supported the players this season with the support from inside and outside the club a welcome boost to the players.

“I’d also like to thank everyone who has come to watch our games recently, the amount of work the coaches put in and the girls’ commitment of training three nights a week whilst holding down schoolwork and full time jobs isn’t an easy task but it’s made easier when we have good support throughout the season.  We are looking forward to the rest of the season and focusing on playing some football that we know we can.”