Game eighteen for the L2s was against mid-table Bury - also somewhere in the middle of nowhere which meant a 7am alarm…ON A SATURDAY! Having trekked along the A14 to apparently the greatest school in the world (indoor tennis centre, anyone?), we strolled on to the “walled garden astro” to begin the day’s campaign. Dani KS even did some voluntary extra warm-up sprints: we were ready.

It didn’t take long for goal one-hundred to be netted, courtesy of a straight strike from Jess on the P spot. However, Bury came back at us and a brilliant save from Lydia kept us with a clean sheet. Panic averted, some great passing play through the midfield line of Jess, Sarah and Sam worked the ball back up to our attacking twenty-three. A physics-defying shot from Izzy then wound its way around a defender and into the goal to secure our second.

Continued pressure saw a reverse strike by Sam converted by Dani A, and a textbook box short corner routine put away by Izzy put us four ahead at half time. Eimear and Dani were in some great positions on the posts, but Bury’s keeper had a strong game and made some great saves to prevent the score line increasing. That plus one hundred goal difference will have to wait…

Bury put up a good fight in the second half and their defence proved much harder to get through. However a great round-the-back switch through H, Ellie and Emily was then shelled down the wing to find Alison and we were in. Our fifth goal came from some great play from Sarah, with a sixth from Alison from the left. Bury did put some pressure back on but Aoife and the defensive line prevented them from being able to capitalise and enabled us to keep a clean sheet.

MoM votes went to H, Jess and Sarah, who deservedly took the title. Jess was LOM for talking to the opposition instead of receiving a pass - sly tricks from Bury…?! Izzy ‘almost died’ but thankfully for her we forgot this when voting. Dani A narrowly missed out on lemon for nearly poaching a goal, whilst Dani KS suffered from a ball overload situation during the warm up which saw some votes go her way too.

And in a first for this season from H, this match report is actually factually accurate!