The bright sunshine and balmy weather sadly did not set the scene for a glorious win at the Long Road fortress today. Even the eagerly anticipated return of Kylie and Alice could do little to shift the gloom…

The excuses came in thick and fast: "I'm stressed with exams!", "I've had too much prosecco!", "I've got problems with my lady bits!" To be fair, against all odds Alice was the most stoic of them all, and that was after being stuck in Atlanta airport for 14 hours in complete bewilderment. "I just couldn't get over all those funny accents", she cried.

South had a slow start…it wasn't looking great when the push back resulted in a pass straight off the pitch, but hey, where's the fun in taking the easy option? In the lethargy there were flashes of brilliance, a couple of great interceptions by Julie here…a little bit of Kim doggedly reverse stick swiping there…but alas, Shefford and Sandy struck a fantastic ball through the air, flying past South's keeper. (Although Lou went to the extent of sending a text message to claim said goal, poor tyke hasn't realised we don't usually applaud those scored in our own net.)

Half time came. General consensus…pull your finger out girls! Do it for your team, do it for the club…if Jez can do it so can we - Jez we can! (Cringe) Annoyingly, Shefford started well and proceeded to put away another two goals.

You may be wondering is there anything but s&@t in this sandwich? I'd like to point out that South were by no means dead and buried. A few tidy passes down the middle and a dink to Laura on the left resulted in a fantastic strike into the back of the Shefford goal. Buoyed up and hungry for more, well connected play by Kylie and Emma M on the left and Emma F and Jess on the right culminated in an almighty Hug swing straight into the net.

The last ten minutes were actually pretty exciting. Sophie did some great little runs and Diane, Lou, Lucy and Julie did a sterling job of keeping Shefford out of the South D. High praise for Laurie, who bravely stepped in to keep, for the first time ever, and who put in a very credible performance.

Sorrows were drowned in lashings of Diet Coke and hurt pride buried in a mound of pizza. It was agreed that if only we'd had an extra fifteen minutes "we'd 'av 'ad 'em" and the plan is to "start a little earlier next time". Disappointing result but has left a powerful desire for retribution in the first league game next week.