Barry Town captain Lauren Harris believes her side have stepped up a level this season, despite a lot of change behind the scenes.
After producing their own great escape last season, Barry currently find themselves in seventh place, but are only four points behind fourth place TNS.
What makes this achievement more remarkable is the change the Barry squad have had to go through at the start of the season.
Lee Kendall was in charge to begin the season, before he took over the men’s side after Gavin Chesterfield departed the club, a change Harris and the squad knew was coming.
‘We did really well under Lee. He bought in things that we hadn’t had before. We only lost against Swansea 1-0, and that was through a penalty’
‘That proves structure wise how good we were. We also had good results under him against Cardiff City and Cardiff Met.’
Kendall’s departure paved the way for Sean Wharton’s arrival, Barry’s fourth manager within the last six months.
While the squad are in full support of the work and philosophy Wharton has bought in, the constant change has been difficult at times.
‘It’s tough. People changing, different faces, different personalities, different philosophies’
‘Sean wants us to enjoy our football, to play with a smile on our face and be creative, which I think is very different to what we’ve had before’
‘It can definitely work, we need to believe in ourselves a little bit more as players’
‘Most of the girls here at Barry just want to enjoy their football, the same as any player.’
While their current form hasn’t been stellar, Harris still thinks fourth place is still an achievable target for the club.
‘I think once we get a win again, hopefully we’ll get that momentum and carry that through until the end’
‘We’ve also got more points now than we did this time last season and that’s a positive. We drew against Abergavenny which was frustrating because we wanted the three points, but they took their chances, and we didn’t’
‘We just need a win. In the past, we’ve played Ponty and we’ve been really competitive against them, we’ve had good games against Aberystwyth too, so I hope we can get a few more wins and in phase two we’ll start climbing up a bit.’
If they are to climb up the table, Barry will need the likes of Mackenzie Olden to guide them up the Adran Prem.
The striker has scored eight goals this season, two behind current league top scorer Pheobie Poole, and Harris is full of praise for their marksman.
‘Standing at the back, I know myself and Delia Ebbin have said, when the ball goes through to her and she’s one-on-one with the keeper, nine times out of ten we’ll start celebrating before the ball hits the net, because we know it’s going in’
‘She’s fast, she communicates well with the rest of the squad, she’s the only real striker we have so there’s a lot of responsibility on her, but she’s done well.’
And it isn’t just Olden who’s improving. This Barry side is a young one, and there are players who are constantly improving all over the park.
‘Taite Trivett, I think has been outstanding this season. I think she’s one of the most dominant wingers in the league this season’
‘Manon Pearce has stepped up a level again this season. Anna Houghton has stepped up’
‘We have braver players this season, they’re willing to go through players, whereas last season they were perhaps more timid and shy, but now they’ve found their feet in the league and are stepping up to it.’
While Barry have won a lot of plaudits on the pitch, off the pitch they are shining too, none more so than Harris herself.
This year she won the FAW McDonalds’ Grassroots Football Rising Star of the Year Award, and her enthusiasm to inspire others is clear to everyone.
‘To win the national award was incredible. There was a video playing in the background and a couple of the girls I coached appeared on there, and it opened my eyes to what the girls really thought about me’
‘I’ve turned up to the minis and juniors training on Friday nights down at Jenner Park this season more than last season, the impact I’ve had from them, whether it be Christmas parties that you get asked to go to, it doesn’t take much time’
‘I’ve said the same thing to the other players all the time, it may only take half an hour of your day, but to those girls it’ll mean the world’
‘I play football because I love football, I coach because I love coaching … I do it because I love it and I won’t stop.’
On the pitch, Harris is hoping her side can keep improving until the end of the season.
‘We need to keep building, we need to do a bit more work on attacking, we do need to score more goals because we’ve gone a bit flat with that’
‘The more we get to know the manager the more we’ll know the system and the more we’ll come together, we’ll be happier playing our football.’
Barry’s next match will be at home to Cardiff Met on January 22nd.
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