As the L3s made our way to Long Road in the wind and the rain, sleep in our eyes, we were not feeling prepared for the match ahead of us. However, a motivational team talk from Laurie (“They’re going to come out hard so we’re going to come out harder,” seems to be our team tactic this season) and a sudden change in the weather brightened our spirits. Pathetic fallacy? I think so. And we were ready to take on Royston 2s.

They had first pushback. The ball was out hard but quickly won by South, making a strong lead towards the D. Great start, ladies! After a series of short, sharp passes (which I think even Dave would be happy with) we won the first short of many. Soon after that a penalty flick was awarded to us. It was Lauren B who stepped up to take it (MoM-worthy effort for sure) and popped it effortlessly into the back of the goal. With our spirits high, the umpire called another short - this time it was Rhi who smashed in a goal for us.

After half time Royston (as predicted) came back fighting but so did we with another goal from Lauren B. Another short was given to us - Tuffers received the ball from Lauren at top D, dribbled around two players and sent it straight into the back of the goal. The score was four-one but Royston were not giving up easily.

As the game was drawing to a close tensions were running high, as demonstrated by Janette’s Usain Bolt-esq sprint all the way down the wing to support our attackers. A short was awarded to us just as the final whistle blew. The match concluded with a series of somewhat chaotic shorts in which all members of both teams could play in the attacking twenty-three; unsurprisingly, not a single shot on goal went in due to the sheer amount of feet getting in the way (hence why there were so many shorts).

Overall a great game in which we were able to practice everything we've learnt in training over the last few weeks; a result and a large number of bruises (mainly on Emma) that we should be impressed with.