ALLAN SALVONA has reflected on Alloa Women’s first half of the season with performances exceeding all expectations.

Only a few months ago, there was no women’s club, no manager and no players, but the club have now established themselves and their displays are getting better with each passing week.

The club are now on a short break with the players due back to training on Tuesday, July 19 ahead of the first fixture on Sunday, August 7.

Salvona told Advertiser Sport: “It’s definitely been better than expected. I think I went into it with an open mind.

“The club have certainly exceeded expectations, the support from them has been excellent. The challenge of not having any players to begin with and building up a team that has confidence and a bit of belief in each other was a challenge but it feels like we’re now there.”

At times this season the club have struggled to fill a bench on matchdays but now the club are building a strong squad with competition for places.

Salvona continued: “That’s a real positive and I think that’s been reflective on the score lines more recently. When you consider we’ve went from zero players to a core group of girls that are working hard for each other then, yes, there’s a lot of positives.

“I put goals in place, realistic expectations on where we want to be come the end of the year and it’s given us that steady platform to really work on certain aspects of the game but also it’s given an indication of where we need to strengthen.

“We’ve got a couple of girls ready to come along when we resume training and we’ll continue to build from there.”

With players who are on their summer holiday from university also due back, it will only benefit the team.

“People are going to start competing for places,” Salvona said. “There will be a real squad after the break.”

Salvona also hopes that the progress his side have made will make it a more attractive place for players to come and play football in the future.

He said: “People are seeing it’s now something that’s becoming established. It’s not something that the club have just thrown together.

“For Alloa we play in the stadium every single [home] game. It’s these sort of things that make a difference.

“People can see the progression. It’s definitely working, it’s just all positives for us going forward.”

Relationships are building between the squad and players are leaning on others, another positive step Salvona’s side have taken.

He said: “It’s evident on both the training pitch and the football pitch when they’re talking to each other they’re learning from experience. It definitely feels like there’s a good mix there and we’ll look to continue to utilise the knowledge and experience the older players have and continue to build on where we are just now.

“There’s more games after the break which is good, the more games the better in terms of our development so it should be a good second half to the season.”