The L1s were excited to have a Cambridge derby back in the fixture list this season, and were raring to go for our lunchtime pushback against City 4s.

We started strongly and the first five minutes were a fast-paced battle for the middle third of the pitch, with Kim "Miss Cooil" Cooil running hard and jabbing strong and Harriet darting around the pitch like nobody's business (maybe this is why she always wins the Weekend Warrior on Fitbit…?). South demonstrated some great passing moves and challenged hard when City had the ball in midfield, with some superb linking play between the dynamic Cooil-Walker duo as well as Amalia, Hannah and Emma-Rose on the wings. Robyn McClean directed proceedings with aplomb from centre-back, soaking up the pressure and intercepting dangerous ball after dangerous ball before distributing it out to Roisin, Diane and Mel in defence, who ran and tackled their socks off all game.

The pressure built towards the end of the first half, with several moves (that looked drilled!) coming close to goal but not quite making it over the line. It took an exquisite cross-field 50m pass from Mel Aksoy (contender for pass of the season) to pick out Amalia in space on the right to break the strong City defence, and the cross was tidily put away for a debut goal from Alison Small. Perhaps the excitement got to us a little bit because the lead was short-lived and the fast City runners caught us on the break to level the scores just before half time.

South got their breath back and started the second half even more strongly than the first, with some clever linking play leading to a series of attacks on the City goal. Our striking trio of Elaine Penniket, Sophie McComish and Alison Small worked well together and South took the lead with a well-worked short corner, which Penniket slotted home. Two more, slightly less clinical (but hey, they all count!) finishes from Penniket at close range gave her a hat-trick and bagged us the points.

This was a tough game though, and the end-to-end nature of it meant that South were running their absolute socks off all afternoon. The defence withstood significant pressure from City and kept their dangerous attackers at bay. In the final minute South were caught on the break once again and, despite a heroic save on the line by Robyn, it was impossible to get out of the way of the rebound shot. A flick was awarded and despite Mel's best efforts to remove the ball and stop the flick being taken, City's finish was on point.

All in all a great performance from the L1s, with hard work across the field bringing us the result we deserved against our local rivals. Big shout out to the big support from CSHC on the sidelines!