South got the season off to a solid start with a promising performance against a strong side from Bishop's Stortford, coming out 5-2 winners with a particularly strong second-half performance in Cambridge's late summer sun.

We started fast, putting pressure on the ball well and moving the ball down the right with some strong passing moves between Ellie, Georgie, Amalia, Hannah and Flix producing some early chances on goal. The pressure resulted in a short corner, with Kim using her speed to be first on to the rebound and slot the ball past the keeper for our first goal. A few minutes later Amalia put in a scorcher of a cross from the right which Soph proper caned into the bottom corner.

We closed down Bishop's Stortford's waves of attack pretty well but gave away an unfortunate short which they tucked away just before half time. Diane earned Lemon for a moment of madness at the top of the D, but made up for it with a cracking clearance to end the half. Unfortunately, the rest of the team remembered the former rather than the latter when it came to the vote…

At half time we resolved to buck up our ideas a bit about movement off the ball and passing on the move, and actually managed to put it into practice in the second half. Blythe and Grace put in some cracking crossfield balls from midfield and Kim harassed the opposition, stealing some great balls (and leaving players scattered all over the pitch in her wake). Harriet was once again a terrier in midfield, putting Flo in for a stunning reverse stick strike that almost burst the top corner netting.

At the other end, Caroline made some class saves and Julie saved our bacon but we conceded a tap in goal after we were overloaded in our own D. South pushed on with some strong attacking play, and Kim put the result beyond question with a run into the D and a straight strike that flew past the keeper. (I know - who knew she could hit the ball??)

All in all, a really promising start to the season for the L1s with lots of new faces. Bring on the season!