Captain Cath started by stressing how winnable this game was; essentially, that they weren't City! We doubled our goal tally in one match - that's almost as good as winning right?

The first half was probably the more promising for South. March were very quick on the ball and had a couple of players in the centre with some good skills who were breaking through effectively.

The first goal went in March's favour after a strong cross into our D was neatly finished off into the backboard from near the p-spot. Their second followed fairly swiftly after but was a distinctly less classy affair.

Despite this dent in the optimism for a win, South were having fairly even possession of the ball with several strong attacks getting as far as the March D. On one of these occasions we managed to avoid it getting promptly swept straight out again; Lucy passing to Serin who then passed it on again for Esme to finish it off from within a meter of the goal for our first one. Cue the 2s' usual super-enthusiastic goal celebrations! March looked somewhat confused...

Just before half time, in one of March's frantic clearing attempts a ball was lifted (probably up off a South stick to be fair) into poor Diane's face/teeth. Fortunately all front teeth were left intact, the injury later being described as "botox gone wrong!"

At half time the score was 2-1 and we still felt very much in the game, rather than the now-usual "wipe the slate clean, second half is a new game" approach we've been taking recently.

The second half saw Loopy and the defence fending off numerous March assaults, with the majority being straight strikes on goal hit pretty hard and with a nice (but terrifying) variety of heights. So mainly falling to Loopy to deal with, hence the well earnt MOM.

Unfortunately, under relentless attack and far too many defensive short corners, three more got past. Several were clever flicked rebounds after Loopie had dived to save the initial strike. Anne also made a notable contribution in taking on the formidable task of trying to stop March's intimating number 36 (responsible for setting up or striking virtually all of their goals) getting the ball too frequently…

But South weren't necessarily playing any worse than the first half, for once having the luxury of some subs to rotate tiring legs! Early on in this half, consistent possession pressurising March's D resulted in Emma striking the ball from around the 25 at their goal, for Steph to get the sneakiest but essential touch on it in the circle to secure goal number two past the goalie's right foot!

About ten minutes later we all got quite optimistic after Lucy dribbled her way through several defenders along the back line to belt the ball (just) wide of the left post. South kept fighting to the bitter end, quite literally, but sadly didn't manage to convert the short corner given on the final whistle into anything to grace the score sheet.

The post-match debrief concluded that the final score reflected not a vast gap in skills or teamwork, but simply speed on the ball; we were walking relative to their running. Plus the persistent issue of converting our consistent possession into goals! A broad range of MOM nominations aside from Loopie reflected this too. Think it was fair to say Cath was ecstatic to finally renounce the lemon onesie title to this week's joint honours of Doctor Diane & her botox, & Emma falling over her own feet for no reason in the first half. Viewing of the photo of the shared onesies wearing is highly recommended!