First match back and the South side sure did feel this. A loss but a lot to take home from this game: a big one…FITNESS FITNESS FITNESS.

South turned up raring to go; the sun was shining, Jess was late (even though she lives in Stortford) and Ellie had a sore head from the night before (she also drove to Saffron Walden instead of Stortford…)

H and Izzy got the new team ready for their first friendly of the season. Lots of new names and old names made up the squad against Stortford. It was time to get this squad gelled together to aim for promotion for this season: yipeeeee!

The first half started off interestingly…

It took some time for us to bring our individual skills together as a team. There was some great passing from the defence as Bishop's Stortford put the pressure on. Stortford were given a short, which they converted with an awesome goal, making it one-nil to Stortford. Not long after Stortford got another one and we went two-nil down.

Izzy and H gave us an uplifting team talk over some oranges and jelly babies. With some sugar in the system and a positive team talk from our new captains we came back fighting in the second half. We worked much better together, with some great runs from the whole squad. On the break, we headed for goal. The midfield worked together to get the ball down to Tuffers making the score two-one. Dani was the saviour of the second half with some great defending and energy - she possibly might have eaten too many jelly babies but this is what we needed and her performance earned her Man of the Match.

An unlucky result, however a positive game for a friendly and lots to take away and work on. A few red faces and achy legs, but we left with smiles on our faces as we played a great second half as a team. Hopefully next week there will be less red faces and many more goals!