The Ladies 3s were anxious going into this game, as during the friendly against Royston 3s just a few weeks ago, Royston had beaten Cambridge with a high score of nil-seven. However, we were not going to let that get to us. The sun was shining, it was Lauren’s birthday (happy birthday) and it was a home game – we were in it to win it.

The first half of the match was definitely dominated by the Cambridge South ladies, with lots of opportunities made by the forwards, lots of action in their D and some really near-misses of the goal. There was great communication between the ladies, with strong passes by Lucy D out to the wings to bring the ball into the D from the sides. Where, on one occasion, Lucy C committed to catching one of these high speed balls and injured herself against the fence; hence “the fence” landed itself the lemon vote. Unfortunately, Lucy C injured her wrist and had to go to A&E (get well soon, Lucy!!)

With one man down and with very few subs, we were not going to let this get to us: we were all even more determined! Lauren did some epic runs and, using her great stick skills, she really dominated the midfield position, awarding her the well-deserved man of the match vote.

As the game went on, Royston were getting more determined to score some goals too, getting into our D. However, our defenders were on them, not letting them get through, with Jess clearing balls and using her amazing skills to get the ball back to the midfielders, and Laurie stopping some hard balls and making sure the defenders were back in their positions. A special mention has to go to Louise, the goal keeper, who made sure the defenders were on their players and who had some fantastic one-on-one saves!

At the end of the first half the score was still 0-0. After some team talk over jelly babies, we started the second half strong and dominating the game again. Rebecca was working very hard to keep the ball on their side of the pitch, dribbling the ball around all the Royston players. Again, all the forwards were getting some really great plays in their D – with controlled passes between Dani, Catriona, Naomi and Lucy D, but their goalkeeper wasn’t going to let that ball in. However, Dani didn’t give up and, booom, she scores! “GOOOOOAL” – the South ladies were jumping and celebrating, but we had to keep our head in the game – we still had ten minutes left and Royston were putting on more pressure to score. After some crucial saves in the defence, the game was over. After a long and tense game, we were the winners and, guess what – WE ARE TOP OF THE LEAGUE!!! This is a great start to the league, with a clean sheet, and let’s hope this leads to a long streak of wins.

Also a big thank you to Rebecca’s partner for doing a great job at the subbing, and supporting us on the side line.