Our first match of the season was against Bury St Edmunds. A strong team, from one division above us, so although it was a friendly we were, competitive as we are, pretty pumped and wanting to win this one.

We gathered early and Kim got us ready for the game with her pre-match tactics chat and an excellent warm up. Sophie was there for support, though unable to play due to an accident involving a fall, her forehead and her stick, during training earlier in the week.

With the push back from Bury we kicked off the season. Fifteen minutes in we had already encountered an attacking short corner but unfortunately we didn’t score from that. The first goal however followed soon after, when Laura passed to Georgina J who hit it straight in.

We didn’t score any more goals in the first half, but due to great dives from Lou C in defence and some good saves from Loopy we also didn’t get any goals against us, so the score was 1-0 to us at half time.

The second half got off to a good start with another goal from Georgina J. How she managed to pass that ball with reverse stick and whilst falling over we will never know!

Defence kept their cool, with great passes down the lines from Lou C, Serin and Julie, to find Emma M a bit further up the pitch, putting the pressure on Bury’s halves. Meanwhile our halves, Georgie and Emma F did a great job linking our backs and forwards and helping in defence as well as setting up the attacks.

But what happened next would have cost us our clean sheet, if it weren’t for the new rules…as Kim ‘I’ve-finally-bought-club-shirt-and-socks’ Cooil managed to flick the ball up in the D, over Loopy’s head, straight into goal. Great skills!

Third goal followed from a rebound in the D, off Georgina’s stick again, helped by Jess and Laura either side of her.

Ten minutes before full time we got a short corner against us, due to a foot in the D from Diane. Fortunately we cleared it quickly, regained possession and started the attack again. It resulted in yet another goal, this time from Laura who skilfully manoeuvred the ball past Bury’s goalie and got us to a final score of 4-0.

Smiles all round, great team spirit and the L1s are ready to start this season!