Orkney teenagers Abi Coltherd and Reese Flaws making history by representing island in Scottish Women’s Football pyramid with Ross County
Two Orkney teenagers are making history with Ross County Women as the first female players from the island to push on into the Scottish Women’s Football pyramid.
Abi Coltherd and Reese Flaws are both part of the County squad who have had a whirlwind few months, winning the Highlands and Islands League, entering the SWFL North and even playing at the Global Energy Stadium in a Scottish Cup tie against Bonnyrigg Rose.
Flaws scored the only goal of the deciding game as County lifted the Highlands and Islands League trophy, while Coltherd has established herself as a regular in both the under-18s and senior squad.
The latter in particular has been in blistering form, scoring against Bonnyrigg and also claiming a goal and an assist against Grampian last Sunday, with those games coming either side of a hat-trick for the under-18s.
Dad George, who still coaches both players during the week with Orkney before they head to the mainland for matches at the weekend, says they are flying the flag for the island in women’s football.
“This island could not be more proud of the first two females to represent Orkney at a higher division in football,” George said.
“We don’t need to motivate Abi because she puts everything into her training, I couldn’t ask for more. It’s exciting times.
“This last weekend, she went down on the Aberdeen boat with Reese. For that boat journey, she goes on the boat at 10.30pm or 11pm, and she only gets in at 7am.
“It can be the same on the way back, and then she might need a bus, a taxi or a friend to get her to the game and back to the boat.
“Mostly, after the game on the Saturday, she gets on the team bus to Dingwall and gets accommodation from one of the player’s parents and stays for the Sunday game with the senior team.
“She has to use holidays at work. She might come back on a late boat on a Sunday after being away all weekend, so she takes the Monday off to rest.
“She is quite willing to use up her holidays for that, so it shows her commitment to the game she’s playing.”
In Abi’s case, she has been football-mad practically since she was walking. From kicking a ball around with her dad in the garden to playing for Orkney in the Highlands and Islands League, and now on to the pyramid with Ross County, in many ways the sport has become her life.
To help her travel to and from games, the 17-year-old is sponsored by Casey Construction, where she works, and Pentland Ferries.
The hope is that she can continue to progress to the point she is being considered for international honours, emulating County teammate Keira Syrjanen who has already played for Scotland’s under-17s.
“I’m a tough coach – I applaud her for her fitness and her goalscoring, and her speed because she’s unbelievably fast, but I also say we have to improve,” dad George explained.
“We want to get her into the Scotland camp. I think she is more than capable of being there, but she is so quiet on the park. She doesn’t talk much, and she’s a very shy person, but she’s got far more to give.
“Abi does lack confidence, and we are working on that. That comes from staying on an island. Most Orkney athletes are sportspeople who lack that confidence. Even if they are good enough, they are very quiet.
“We had Scotland coaches up here five weeks ago or so, and they took our training for one evening. They said exactly the same thing: the further north you go, the quieter they become.
“Abi’s ability is up there amongst the best in the team, and I haven’t seen anyone as fast as her yet. She just has to believe in that, and use that speed to destroy people.
“She will still keep developing, but in my opinion she is good enough to be in the Scotland under-18s squad, and you don’t have long left if you’re 17.
“That’s a stepping stone to progressing into the under-19s and under-21s. It’s not for a lack of commitment, she just needs to believe in herself more.”
Speed is definitely one of Abi’s greatest strengths on the pitch, and her prowess has seen her break Orkney Athletic and Running Club records that have stood for decades.
It can be used to devastating effect in football, as County found out first-hand when she scored a hat-trick against them earlier this year – prompting the club’s head coach Iain MacIver to sign her ahead of their move into the pyramid.
With a huge advantage in the physicality of football, then, dad George wants to see her focus on the basics to reach that next level.
“When Iain got in touch, I asked if she was coming down for trials and he said no, he had seen what she could do to them,” he added.
“It was a case of getting Abi down and getting her into the team. It was a very easy decision for her to make, because that was her goal from the start.
“We have to thank Iain and the people who have made accommodation available for Abi when she’s down there. We can’t thank them enough, because all her teammates have welcomed her into the team and we just hope that it’s onwards and upwards from here.
“I’m a great believer in getting better at the basics of football, rather than trying to complicate it at their age.
“When I’m coaching the Orkney team, I want them to get better at corners, free kicks, awareness on the pitch, moving off the ball, communicating with each other – all those things that are easy to improve on.
“If you can get better at those things, touching and passing and moving, it is very hard to mark someone who never stays still. I keep telling Abi that, and she is improving, so we work on it on Tuesday and Thursday nights in Orkney to prepare her for her weekend games.
“I’ve been to the last two matches. I was at the stadium for the Scottish Cup game against Bonnyrigg, where Abi scored an absolute scorcher in the first half but they just got pipped at the post 3-2 by a team in the division above them.
“Then I got to see the match last weekend, because I was already in Inverness, and she assisted the first goal and scored the last one.
“I keep telling her that in the first five minutes of a game she needs to test out her opponent.
“In every game she plays, she should be running at that opponent, and with her speed defenders aren’t going to like that, but it’s all going in the right direction.”
