With the L2s accustomed to early morning games so far this season, a warm late autumn afternoon for the inaugural L2s vs L3s derby was an appealing concept. Typically, it wasn’t to be, and not even mulled wine could take the chill off the cold November wind ahead of push back.

Despite this, the L2s started brightly, with lots of early pressure culminating in an opening goal by Naomi with a great strike off a short corner rebound. Two more goals swiftly followed; an unstoppable strong hit by Flo and a sneaky reverse stick hit from Cara from the top of the D which looked amazing and entirely intended, despite her claims to the contrary!

The L3s made a quick break into the L2s' D towards the end of the second half but with Hannah B lining up a shot, the threat was quickly snuffed out by the L2s' defence leaving Emma disappointed she was unable to perform her promised (soon to be) trademark diving save across goal!

The pressure continued after the break. Grace got a quick fourth after some nice wing play and a great run by Eimear, and Flo added a fifth from another short corner. A sixth could have been had when Lauren pounced on a loose back pass but was thwarted by a scary-looking Loopy charging out of goal when 1-on-1. The sixth went in not long after that following some relentless pressure, with the honours going to Dani for the last touch before it ricocheted in off the keeper.

All in all, a good performance by the L2s, whose new formation seems to be putting pressure on opposition defences; certainly the score could have been more had it not been for great work from the L3s' defence, with Sarah getting a personal mention from myself for excellent marking and generally making a nuisance of herself whenever I got in the D!

Reflecting the overall performance, MoM was shared between Cara, Flo, Naomi, Hannah and Emma(!) all with 2 votes each, with Emma’s nominations mostly revolving around the ability to stand up. Emma was almost unanimously voted LoM, for her lack of contribution, with one vote going to Serin for a demonstration of rugby skills and one vote going to "Everybody else for not sharing the ball" – no prizes for guessing who that was from!

With City 4s up next, let’s hope we have similar reasons to vote for Lemon next week!