Team Solent’s Chelsea Law tells us about the club’s amazing season which has seen them win two league titles and three cup finals.
SK: Give us a rundown of your 2013-14 silverware
CL: This year was successful for us, we won our BUCS (University competition) League title and Conference Cup. We also won the Hampshire League Division 2 title, as well as the County Intermediate Cup and League Invitation Cup and came runners-up in the Southampton Cup.
SK: Could you have dreamed of such a successful season for the club?
CL: Never in a million years, we have always done reasonably well, but we’ve always had a few bogey teams that have just pipped us to the top spots. However, we got a really good group of freshers (first years) and a good foundation to build with, so we thought we could maybe do well, but we could never have expected this!
SK: When did it dawn on you that you could have quite a trophy haul in the making?
CL: It wasn’t until the latter stages of the season, because of so many cancellations around Christmas we had no idea who we would be up against. But later on in one week, in 4 days in fact, we had 3 semi-finals, and with them all being so close and against tough teams, we had no idea we would do so well. I think after winning 3 semi-finals in 4 days we started to believe in ourselves and were determined to win as much silverware as possible.
SK: Which was the most memorable of your successes, or individual results, and why?
CL: I think the BUCS Cup Final was the biggest of them all, as we were up against probably the toughest team we’d played all year [UWE], and it is considered a very prestigious award in the university world, so I think we were all so nervous going into this game. We also had the potential to win the league on the same day, as we were waiting on another result to go our way. This meant we could either have a truly amazing day or a really devastating one; it was a MASSIVE day! It was all the way up in Cardiff, so we took a team bus and a few supporters and the tension had built over the whole day. It was also a first cup final of the year, so for all of these reasons it was definitely our hardest and best win.
SK: Tell us about a team or opponent that has impressed most this season
CL: We have played against some very interesting opponents this season. We played one team (Boscombe Albion) four times so got to know them quite well!! But the most impressive team was probably UWE (University of West England).
SK: Do you have much of a turnover players and what are your hopes for next season?
CL: Every year we have to say goodbye to some key players which is always a problem for university teams, Solent will be losing their two captains and centre-backs, as well as several other first team players, a German international student and the team’s Player of the Year. It is always sad but I really hope they get another amazing influx of freshers to build from such a successful season! They will have a tough season next year, with promotions all round but I am certain they will live up to the competition.
SHE KICKS – the online community for women’s football