As the sun began to set at Long Road, the L2s set out on their road to redemption following their first loss of the season against a feisty Saints team last week…

Katie came prepared in full fashion prowess in a sexy pair of oompa-loompa-doompa-dah-dee socks - (Vogue, if you'd like her number let me know!) Ellie was less prepared with no shoes!

The warm up was improved by the presence of Harley (he's such a dude!) and a carefully thought out programme of stretches (well, the ones Izzy could remember…).

As usual, we spent a long time discussing where the sun would set and which end we should go for. We lost the toss and got the end we wanted… However, the sun disappeared and the whole conversation became slightly irrelevant. Oh well, at least we had a nice long time on the pitch to perfect our stick skills, or just under five minutes (who needs to warm up the goalie…!)

The game started strong and we thought the phenom-eimear (this pun will work) might bless us with her magic and score in the first five minutes, but somehow City stole the first goal from under us (maybe warming up the goalie might be a good idea - only joking; Emma is always on point). After the sneaky goal against us, from a short, we reassessed what this might mean - we can't lose twice in a row! So we turned to Izzy for some ten out of ten action… She didn't disappoint and slipped the ball between the goalie's legs with perfect precision and we drew level.

Today was a lucky day: we had Tuffers to boost the frontline with unrelenting determination and dives. After a couple of very near misses, Tuffers found the back of the net (a reverse flick, I hear). She then went on to strike a short corner with conviction for it to be stopped on the line by a City foot: cue a penalty flick! Annie stepped up to the mark and delivered a perfect man of the match performance, bringing the score to three-one.

The final goal came from pure team work, finishing with Eimear passing a beautiful ball to Izzy for her to smash it home.

Throughout the game, South really brought their A-Game with some classy work at the back with Ellie, Jess, Jenny and Harriet working as a solid unit, delivering the ball up all the channels to the mids and on to the forwards.

The mids had a stormer throughout and Annie, Katie and Kate drove down the sidelines with intent and skill – with Annie and Kate taking joint MoM.

Although Eimear didn't break the five minute opener with a goal, she did make a break in the second half, went one-on-one with the goalie and cruelly found the post – a close one and she fell over in surprise that it hadn't gone in!

Naomi supported us throughout despite the bitter cold and being taken out by Harley (apparently a song called 'Rawhide' comes to mind on this occasion' – thank you!)

So we're back…back again… Bring on the trip to Sudbury!

Post-match update: after a nasty fall (take out), our ten out of ten has been damaged and will need to heal some nasty grazes!