West am United Ladies' manager blogs about their season so far and his best free kick
As a player, Julian Dicks made 326 appearances in a claret and blue shirt, scoring an impressive 65 goals.
The four time Hammer of the Year is currently in charge on the West Ham United Ladies team who are set to face Charlton Athletic in the London FA Capital Women’s Cup Final on Wednesday 6 May.
Speaking exclusively to www.whufc.com, Dicks discussed the Ladies’ 1-0 win over league leaders Cardiff City, Aaron Cresswell’s goal against Stoke City and the best free kick he ever scored…
Last weekend we beat Cardiff City 1-0 thanks to a 93rd minute goal by Vicky Kinsman. We worked hard but if I’m honest we were lucky to win. That’s football sometimes, if you’re keeping clean sheets you always give yourselves a chance. We worked hard but our quality wasn’t quite there. Having said that, we’ve got seven points out of nine from the top teams.
Two weeks ago, we had a team meeting, a very honest chat about where we are and what we want to achieve because I felt we were better than our performances.
We won our first game back 2-1 away at Cardiff City, which was a fantastic result. The following Tuesday we played Charlton who are a good side, we were pretty poor but a point is a point.
Since our talk we’ve improved and we’ve only lost game in the last six. Some we didn’t deserve to win but that’s football. We’ve played really well in some games and lost so you have to take the rough with the smooth.
This weekend we play Lewes. Earlier in the season we beat them 1-0 but I’m expecting a lot more because we could’ve played much better. Our work rate was good but the quality let us down. Football is about keeping the ball and we struggled to do that.
Overall, I’ve really enjoyed the season, there’s times where I want to tear my hair out and times where I want to bury my head. But that’s football, that happened throughout my career. I’m very passionate, I kick every ball and the girls are probably sick of my voice. They are a good group, there are no egos in the side which is a good thing.
On a different note, I thought Aaron Cresswell’s goal against Stoke City was a fantastic strike. It reminded me of the strike I put away against Nottingham Forest, but mine was further out!
Cresswell’s free kick was a great hit, to get it up and down the wall and reverse it to the far corner was fantastic, it’s just a shame it wasn’t the winning goal. I haven’t had the chance to watch the men’s team this season, but from what I have seen I think he is a very good player.
He’s still pretty young, hopefully he can go on leaps and bounds and keep on improving. He’s a very good player and I hope he builds on it.
As for my best free kick? My free kick against Nottingham Forest was a special goal because we were chasing them at the top of the table.
There was another one going back a long time against Peter Shilton, I remember hitting it from about 25 yards. Because it was against Peter Shilton it was special but all my goals stand out for different reasons.
I used to practise free kicks a lot after training, I used to absolute batter whoever was in goal, they’d be out there for as long as I wanted. Sometimes I’d stay out there for an hour after training. Back then we didn’t have mannequins so I used some of the apprentices for the wall, they weren’t too happy!
When Lou Macari was here, he’d have me hitting balls from all over the place, even the centre circle. For me it wasn’t about bending them, it was about putting my foot through it and testing how hard the wall was!
All the best,
Julian
The four time Hammer of the Year is currently in charge on the West Ham United Ladies team who are set to face Charlton Athletic in the London FA Capital Women’s Cup Final on Wednesday 6 May.
Speaking exclusively to www.whufc.com, Dicks discussed the Ladies’ 1-0 win over league leaders Cardiff City, Aaron Cresswell’s goal against Stoke City and the best free kick he ever scored…
Last weekend we beat Cardiff City 1-0 thanks to a 93rd minute goal by Vicky Kinsman. We worked hard but if I’m honest we were lucky to win. That’s football sometimes, if you’re keeping clean sheets you always give yourselves a chance. We worked hard but our quality wasn’t quite there. Having said that, we’ve got seven points out of nine from the top teams.
Two weeks ago, we had a team meeting, a very honest chat about where we are and what we want to achieve because I felt we were better than our performances.
We won our first game back 2-1 away at Cardiff City, which was a fantastic result. The following Tuesday we played Charlton who are a good side, we were pretty poor but a point is a point.
Since our talk we’ve improved and we’ve only lost game in the last six. Some we didn’t deserve to win but that’s football. We’ve played really well in some games and lost so you have to take the rough with the smooth.
This weekend we play Lewes. Earlier in the season we beat them 1-0 but I’m expecting a lot more because we could’ve played much better. Our work rate was good but the quality let us down. Football is about keeping the ball and we struggled to do that.
Overall, I’ve really enjoyed the season, there’s times where I want to tear my hair out and times where I want to bury my head. But that’s football, that happened throughout my career. I’m very passionate, I kick every ball and the girls are probably sick of my voice. They are a good group, there are no egos in the side which is a good thing.
On a different note, I thought Aaron Cresswell’s goal against Stoke City was a fantastic strike. It reminded me of the strike I put away against Nottingham Forest, but mine was further out!
Cresswell’s free kick was a great hit, to get it up and down the wall and reverse it to the far corner was fantastic, it’s just a shame it wasn’t the winning goal. I haven’t had the chance to watch the men’s team this season, but from what I have seen I think he is a very good player.
He’s still pretty young, hopefully he can go on leaps and bounds and keep on improving. He’s a very good player and I hope he builds on it.
As for my best free kick? My free kick against Nottingham Forest was a special goal because we were chasing them at the top of the table.
There was another one going back a long time against Peter Shilton, I remember hitting it from about 25 yards. Because it was against Peter Shilton it was special but all my goals stand out for different reasons.
I used to practise free kicks a lot after training, I used to absolute batter whoever was in goal, they’d be out there for as long as I wanted. Sometimes I’d stay out there for an hour after training. Back then we didn’t have mannequins so I used some of the apprentices for the wall, they weren’t too happy!
When Lou Macari was here, he’d have me hitting balls from all over the place, even the centre circle. For me it wasn’t about bending them, it was about putting my foot through it and testing how hard the wall was!
All the best,
Julian