Peterborough Northern Star continued to build their pre-season training with a win at the Raunds Tournament on Sunday, as they prepare to go one better in the East Midlands League this term.
Returning to the ground where they claimed the Northants Women’s County Trophy in May, the Peterborough side kept a clean sheet for the whole tournament, finishing top of the group stage with a 3 win and 1 draw record before winning the semi-final against Northampton (1-0) and then the final against Great Shelford.(2-0)
After finishing just 1 point behind East Midlands League winners Mansfield Town last term, Peterborough are looking to go one better this season and bring Combination football to the city. Boss Steve Iredale has been impressed with the commitment shown so far by the squad, which has been boosted by a trio of new signings which will make the squad stronger for the coming campaign.
‘Sometimes you can have a ‘disappointment hangover’ after coming so close to winning the league but I don’t think this will be the case for these ladies. They know that in nearly every other team’s eyes that we were the best team in our league last season but the table didn’t lie – we didn’t win the league but I just feel that the ladies are determined to go one better this season.
”Pre-season has been good so far so hopefully we’ll be ready for the first game on the 1st September. We went to the league meeting last week and it was pretty clear that we’re regarded as one of the favourites to win the league this season, so we have a reputation to live up to.”
The only low point of the pre-season has been the loss of the Star Reserve team who have folded due to lack of numbers – ‘Our reserve team was built around a lot of young players and they’re all off to University’ said boss Iredale ‘
“However, it’s definetly something we want to build on at the club – just like the men have a whole structure of junior teams, then we want the same for the women. If there are any independent girls teams in the area who would like to be part of the Northern Star Ladies set up then we’d love to hear from them.”
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