Aberystwyth Town captain Amy Jenkins was at the opposite end of the pitch than normal at the weekend.
The striker donned her gloves to keep goal as her side faced Wrexham in the Genero Adran Trophy – drawing 2-2 in normal time and losing narrowly 5-4 on penalties.
“I was more nervous about being in goal than taking my own!” she admits to SheKicks.net. “Taking penalties becomes a repetitive thing – we do a lot of stuff like that in training. I had to remind myself a lot of the time when I was in goal during the game, and during the penalties, that I have to move my feet!
“My idea was to try and go which way I felt the strongest – I’m not going to tell you which way that is, because that might give it away if I end up going in goal again.”
But it wasn’t an entirely new experience for her – Jenkins began her career as a keeper. That was simply continuing a family tradition as her dad, the late Kevin ‘Bones’ Jenkins, was a keeper in the Welsh leagues, and her brother Leigh currently turns out for Penrhyncoch in the Cymru North.
And when she realised that regular Aberystwyth Town keeper Sophie Steele wouldn’t be able to make the cup game, she turned up to training fully equipped.
“I would do anything for the badge,” she says. “I’ve always said that. I feel so proud to be able to put the shirt on, let alone put the captain’s armband on.”
Going in goal also changes the way she captains the side.
“It’s quite different, being in goal,” she explains. “You don’t speak to the ref as much from goal, but you see more. I’m a relatively vocal player regardless, but being up front, it’s hard to see what’s behind you, because you’re leading the press if we haven’t got the ball. Goalkeepers see a lot.”
Amy Jenkins: I’m so proud, but not surprised
It’s part and parcel of life for Jenkins and Aberystwyth Town. They are stalwarts of the Genero Adran Premier, the top tier of the women’s domestic game in Wales, but are firmly still amateur. Although there are regular influxes of students recruited after they register to study at the town’s university, out of term-time sometimes there are issues with squad members being able to make it to games.
With all that said, after missing out by such a fine margin against Wrexham, she says she isn’t disappointed at all – and is hugely grateful for the noisy support the team got, adding that young people from the club’s junior sides as well as former players turned up to cheer them on.
“We’ve put ourselves in this position, and we should be so proud of ourselves. We are a good team, we’re organised, and I know that it comes as a shock to a lot of people that we’ve done so well, but to us, not at all – we work together week in week out. I’ve played with a lot of the girls for a long time so we know what each other is capable of. It’s just putting everything together at the right time, and the last two weeks, we’ve dug our heels in and been resilient, and that’s who we are and who we’ve always been.”
She adds: “I’m so, so proud of the girls – but not surprised.”
