Thanks to our coach’s tips we had a truly professional warm-up at the start which was definitely effective at getting our heads in the game… ONLY HOCKEY CHAT ALLOWED. We soon learned this paid off.

We knew it would be a tough game, remembering that Long Sutton weren’t far behind us in the final rankings last year despite us failing to beat them either at home or away. Captain Robyn even admitted that she had accepted she would've been happy with a draw! Have some faith, Robyn!

Our pre-match advice was to go out strong at the start, something we sometimes fail to do. Thankfully we took that on board and had a dominant first few minutes winning short corner after short corner and setting the tone for the game.

Long Sutton however didn’t seem phased by this as they were composed and strong throughout, with fast break aways that thankfully our defence were on top of! Thanks guys.

Nil-nil at half time.

Second half was still good play all-round from both teams. We had another few short corners and shots on goal but to be honest it felt as though the final score might end up as a draw. Thankfully we managed to convert one of our attempts, Sam crossing the ball to Karen to knock it in and make the score one-nil. Boom.

Laura showed she could give a Bolt run for his money (pun very much intended) by recovering a ball that everyone thought was going out.

Man of the match went to Katie for great runs on the right wing and for showing notable perseverance, winning back every ball and running it into the D.

Lots of commitment demonstrated from everyone throughout. Basically ,it felt like everyone had a great game…yay, go us :)

Despite Emily running onto the pitch with her bib still on, Flix got lemon vote for continuously diving, albeit ‘gracefully’. But yeah, I admit I did spend a LOT of time on the floor…you can’t say I’m not committed to getting the ball.

Final score of one-nil to South and some surprising outcomes from the other matches. It's a positive start to the season; we even got a congratulatory fly past from the Red Arrows.

Let’s keep it up. Bring on next week!