Page 12 - Women's Spccer Scene Issue No.37 2021-22

St Austell storm through Premier Division

AFC St Austell have taken the South West Women’s League Premier Division this season,
winning the title at the first attempt. Assistant coach Ben Cooper takes us through their
superb achievement and title success:
“Going into the season, we really didn’t know too much about any of the teams other
than MAP, Torquay and Bideford as they are fairly local. The other teams were relatively
unknown to us, so we just approached each game with the mindset that if stuck to our game
model, we would be able to compete with anyone. Our season in the Premier Division was a
tense one to say the least. A lot like Man City and Liverpool, both us and Ilminster barely
blinked all season and it went to the final day. They really did push us to the wire, along with
Sherborne Town.
In terms of important results, both of our games against Ilminster were vital. We drew
3-3 with them away from home early on in the season, thanks to a Lucy Solloway hat-trick,
although we concede an equaliser in the dying minutes.
The league postponed a few games over Christmas due to covid which meant that on
21st January, we played our first game in six weeks at home to Royal Wootton Bassett. With
75 minutes on the clock, we were 4-1 down and looked dead and buried. Somehow, the team
managed to get the three points with a 93rd minute winner from Chevonne Johanning.
Looking back, I think that this instilled a real ‘never say die’ attitude among the squad. This
is where the players really started to believe that we could win the league.
On the 20th March, we struck a 92nd minute equaliser away to Torquay after the hosts
played nearly 70 minutes with ten players, having had their keeper sent off early on. Without
that point, we would have finished second.
Then, with perhaps our best performance of the season, we beat Ilminster 3-0 at Poltair
Park to inflict a first defeat of the season upon them in late March. That victory really gave us
the confidence to go on and win the league. From there on out, only a little slip up against
Sherborne really gave us a fright. The girls were absolutely superb in terms of holding their
nerve. Our average squad age in the title run-in was just under 21 years old and nobody in
that squad had been under that type of pressure to win, where a draw was as bad as a defeat.
We finished the season with a superb 4-0 win to wrap up the title away to Forest Green Rovers.
Our top scorer for the season was our centre forward Charlotte Whitmore who bagged
35 in all competitions, and winger Lucy Solloway also netted 22. Our manager is Simon
Parnell and his assistant is Ben Cooper. Both joined the club together in 2019 after Simon
approached the chairman about creating a team.
Our skipper is Kaitlyn Harris, who has led by example all season from centre back. She
is our absolute rock. We are very lucky to have her. She is extremely popular and well
respected by both her teammates and the management team. A special shout out must go to
our vice captain, Chevonne Johanning, who has also led by example all season.
Obviously, the players and management team are the ones who got the job done on the
pitch this year, but there are multiple people throughout the club who have made it all possible:
Firstly, the Chairman, Jason Powell, who has backed the team through thick and thin
over the past 3 years. His army of volunteers around the club are unsung heroes- a special
mention to club secretary Tracey Banfield and board member Rob Newport who both help
matchday run as smoothly as possible.
Also, as previously mentioned, we have an incredibly young team and the support of the
players’ families has been absolutely super this season. We have travelled over 1,000 miles on
away trips this season and they have been with us every step of the way. We have a real family
feel to our club and that is really special to us- it’s something you don’t really see with the
women’s teams that are attached to the big men’s clubs.”
Issue no. 37 - 2 June 2022 news@womenssoccerscene.co.uk