Following last weekend’s hockey adventures (Saturday: top of the table win, Sunday: day trip to Newmarket Leisure Centre car park), the L3s were anticipating another tougher game with Saints currently sitting in fourth position, with two games in hand and four points behind third place.

With pushback delayed due to the M4 keeper’s late arrival earlier in the day (he received the wrong pushback time, honest!) there was time to watch the M1s and a short warm up on the tennis courts, made all the more exciting by the added challenge of trying to avoid Otis who seemed to be enjoying trying to trip up half the team.

We were keen to start with a higher tempo than last week and put lots of early pressure on the Saints backline. South went one-nil up through Lauren B, putting the final touch on some lovely play from Dani down the right wing. Lots more pressure on the opposition’s D ensued, with link up play through Lauren C, Olivia, Rebecca, Hayley and Jenny in the midfield, but opportunities to breach the well-organized backline were limited. The mood on the pitch was evidently sense by Otis too, who didn’t appear to be as big a fan of the hockey as he was the warm up (Lauren was too far away and the fence was too high). But South did manage to go into the break two-nil up after a second goal from Lauren, getting a cheeky touch on Louise’s driving airborne shot to divert the ball past the keeper.

The second half largely emulated the first. St Neots had few opportunities in the South D, largely due to Laurie, Meg, Maria and Ani charging down and clearing any loose balls with ease in a defensive performance much improved on last week. Dani wrapped up the goals with a third late on after a largely frustrating second half. That frustration was very much to the credit of St Neots, who kept their formation well and were able to restrict our chances.

Overall, a tougher game than expected against a well-disciplined team who didn’t give up under persistent pressure. But another three points, clean sheet and three more goals on our way to the one hundred target. MoM went to Olivia for some fab driving runs down the right, with Meg a very close second for excellent defending and link up play with the midfield. Lemon was (almost) unanimously Ani, who turned up to the game having sent her stick and gum shield on a day-trip to London.

Bring on bottomless brunch on Sunday (don’t tell Tom…!)