Adelaide United’s Racheal Quigley is optimistic her recent good form and improved fitness will earn her a permanent place up forward in the Lady Reds’ remaining matches of the Westfield W-League season.
Quigley was moved into attack in Round 6 and since then has scored three goals in her past three appearances – a brace against Newcastle and one against Brisbane on Sunday.
It’s been a welcomed opportunity for the 18-year-old who has spent large chunks of the season covering gaps in United’s line-up, especially when captain Christina Papageorgiou was injured.
“Unfortunately the first part of the season I’ve been playing more midfield where I prefer being up front because I’m more of an attacking player, I don’t really rate myself as a defender,” Quigley said.
“In the midfield I think I was doing my job but up front I bring more to the game.”
Quigley has been itching to move deeper into attack but understands why coach Mike Barnett had left her to ply her trade further from goal.
“I wasn’t disappointed because I was playing full games, I was just excited to do that, and I did speak to Mike about that and he said he didn’t want to lose me in the midfield, that was part of the reason,” she said.
“It was a compliment I guess that he wanted me in both positions.”
While it’s taken Quigley a long time to earn her preferred position, the teenager has already taken giant strides forward this season.
In 2008-09 Quigley spent most of the year huffing and puffing her way through cameo roles but since then has worked hard to develop her aerobic capacity.
“I wasn’t fit so I didn’t get much of a go last year whereas this year I’ve turned it around and I’ve been playing full games,” she said.
“I was meant to be one of the super subs because I could only last 20 minutes at the speed of the game.”
“SA soccer is nowhere near the intensity that the W-League brings and I think this year we were more prepared because we knew what we were up against.”
Quigley won’t be the only Adelaide United player growing in confidence with the Reds recording a 2-2 draw against Brisbane Roar in what was a top versus bottom clash in Round 8.
“We were up 2-0 in the first half and were ecstatic, we couldn’t believe it but at half-time it was 2-1 and we played just like them. We were the underdogs but we shocked them obviously,” she said.
“We didn’t have much to lose so we put in our best like it was our last game; we just had a lot of heart I guess because we were sick of how the rest of the season has panned out.”
The Lady Reds will have to defy all odds for the second week in a row when they tackle Sydney FC who creamed them 6-0 in Round 5.
Quigley said with improved concentration and some recent good form behind them, the Reds can take it right up to Sydney too.
“I think we’ll use our speed on the wings and I think lately we’ve done a lot of possession work so we are just going to hold the ball up and we’ll set the pace.”
