Simmons sets record straight

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Labasa women’s football coach Arthur Simmons. Picture: SUPPLIED

Labasa women’s football coach Arthur Simmons has set the record straight to all negative critics after his teams’ two consecutive losses at the Oceania Football Confederation Women’s Champions League.

After a good start defeating Kiwi FC 5-nil, the side went down to Koloale FC 0-1 and then were hammered 4-1 by New Caledonia’s AS Academy Feminine.

Coach Simmons clarified that the competition level is new to many of his players.

“We are meeting teams that have been camping and training together for months whereas we only camped for two weeks,” he wrote on a Facebook post.

“Koloale is practically the national team of Solomons. They transferred almost all the national players to the club when their transfer window opened.

“Hekari is a professional club. Almost all national reps. They get contracted to the club and get paid full time.

“New Caledonia team is a football academy team. They train soccer full time.

“So you can see what we are up against. We don’t train together. Half the players live on Viti Levu and the other half live in Vanua Levu.”

He added that playing three games within a matter of few days was also a challenge.

“We played every match day against high level opponents whereas they were resting in between games and meeting us while well rested.

“You can see that the girls were tired. And we don’t have a strong bench to play. You can see this when we make changes.”

Labasa is on a bye in round four and will face Hekari United in its last match at 7pm on Saturday.

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