This week the Ladies' 1s took on St Ives, who we know are always a really close and usually tough team to play. We hoped after our friendly summer league tournament, where St Ives and South were the only two teams to enter, and the St Ives Charity tournament, where st Ives and south were the only two teams to enter, that we might only face friendly fire! Sadly it was a tough battle out there!

Some of us started the match with a pre-game bacon sandwich; other cars arrived five minutes early leaving captain "The Boss"** Cantwell in a spin.

We arrived at a packed St Ives car park to meet in Changing Room 1. I had to rub some ibuprofen gel on Emma's neck for an undisclosed reason which had resulted in a neck injury. Many ideas got thrown about…

So the match began and South started aggressively, looking the more dominant team with lots of opportunities to score…Heather lookg good in the centre of midfield as well as the forward line of Hannah, Amalia and Alison trying to get the ball in the back of the net! St Ives had a couple of breakaway chances - one of which ended with a flick (heroic goalline work by Robyn). We all watched…as Loopy saveeeeeeeeeeees! (Loopy: "It was the worst flick ever.")

Half time, nil-nil.

Second half was an end to end story with chances for both South and St Ives. George, Robs, Roisin and Amalia all battling hard in midfield and defence. The opposition scored first: St Ives had a couple of breakaway chances - one of which ended with a flick (heroic goalline work by Robyn). Déjà vu I hear you call? Sadly, we all watched as…they scored!

Last ten, it was decided for both Ellie and I to go upfront to change it up and mess with their heads (I have scored five goals this season after all!)…

All this position-changing led Lou to fall over randomly in the middle of the pitch (to add to her tally) and Robyn to take a long corner which she had no idea where to take: no longer on the side line - who knew?

South put more and more urgency into their attacks with short corner after short corner. We did score our equaliser on a well drilled short corner, going from Robyn to Heather to beat the keeper.

Not necessarily the best performance from the L1s but a true demonstration of our battling and desire to win, with so much more to come. We are looking forward to taking them on at Fortress Long Road!

To tea where we voted for Lemon and Man… Man to Heather and Lemon to Robyn?! We threw about some other options and then reassessed the situation to ensure Default Fairlie came victorious in the lemonsie!

**Why is captain Lou referred to as the Boss: for all those fans out there, the answer is hazy: I do believe she gave herself the nickname when ordering her South team top while drunk one night…maybe she knew she was a born leader; maybe she was trying to send a message to her opposition…who knows? Maybe it's due to her slightly obsessive need to organise but that's just my guess.