The ladies section of Ross Juniors began nine months ago and, since then, the team have steadily trained, played friendly matches against Ross Under 16 girls, and worked hard at improving.

The first game they played saw an 8-0 defeat to a very good and experienced Welland Ladies team. Recently two teams were entered into the Mitcheldean Ladies tournament, which was excellent fun. It was also an eye-opening introduction to competitive ladies football in the area.

With a squad of 24 players, the team has never been short on enthusiasm and spirit, and this was evident at Mitcheldean, with the ladies receiving many plaudits for their demenour.

Thursday night, July 7th, saw the ladies play another new team to women’s football in Herefordshire - Belmont. On paper the two teams were matched on experience and the amount of competitive football they had played.

The Ross team are made up of ex-junior players, junior players’ parents and keen women footballers. They started brightly but found it hard in the first 20 minutes to get past the Belmont keeper. The floodgates then opened; In 25 minutes, Ross scored eight goals, some of which were fantastic to watch and involved a great build up and passing play.

The second half was a little more relaxed and it was with much relief to Belmont they managed a consolation goal as Ross added three more to win 11-1.

The hatrick scorers for Ross were Vicki, Holly and Nicole, with a goal apiece from the ever-vocal Rosie and Beth on her debut, the youngest player in the squad. The scorers were ably supported by the rest of the team with great performances in goal from Kate then Minnie, Aysha, Kate B, Lynette and Louise. They all had excellent games too, alongside the rest of their teammates.

Carl Roberts one of the coaches remarked:?“The improvement has been massive, we had some talented young players coming trough who we knew could play but alongside these some of the more experienced squad members have developed so quickly from being new to the game to becoming accomplished footballers and team players. Belmont’s manager Chris was full of praise for our girls commitment, fair play and skill, which was nice to hear.”

The team are now breaking for the summer. They will then be starting with weekly training in September and a lot more competitive football.