New island coaching team aiming to 'ignite' women's football in Guernsey

Little more than three weeks before facing Jersey, Anna Gauvain has taken over the reins as head coach from Richard Sutton, who resigned recently, and she will be assisted by her sister, Katie Watson, last year's Muratti captain, and Scott Ferbrache, with Paul Wheatley acting as adviser.

Speaking on the new episode of the Guernsey Press Football Podcast, the siblings, who both have several Island caps to their name as players, revealed that they had a ‘really positive’ first training session with the squad last week, but they are realistic in the short-term.

• Podcast: Listen to the full interview with Anna Gauvain and Katie Watson on this week's Guernsey Press Football Podcast

‘That is going to be just a match in preparation for the Island Games. Obviously, we want to do well and compete against Jersey, but for us in the short period of time, it’s just getting the girls organised and trying our best to perform on the day, then taking that experience into the Island Games fixtures,’ said Gauvain, who added that the next three months could have a big bearing on the years to follow.

‘This is the start of something. If people could see us in Guernsey playing football and trying to compete, being organised and doing all the right things, then results are sometimes a bit irrelevant. We’ll then look forward to seeing how we can progress girls further.

‘With the stop-starts that have happened with ladies’ football here in Guernsey, Katie and I are here to see it through consistently for a number of years, seeing the young girls come through knowing there’s a pathway, along with the work done by Joelle [Priaulx] does with the schools, we could see more girls playing club football and obviously with the inspiration of Maya [Le Tissier], we will look to help use her to encourage girls to get involved.

‘The future is really bright.’