Match day arrived once again, this week to a sunny but slightly chilly autumn afternoon. Requested meet time a whole one hour before the match! Notably there were one or two late arrivals. (Well, I was otherwise engaged in conversation with a very nice young man in the B&Q paint section.) Thankfully, the rest of the team made it there on time for the warm up. Which turned out to be slightly longer than anticipated due to the late running of the previous match.

Whilst making our way over to the dug out, Kendra grabs my arm and in a very girly and flustered way squeaks “That’s Helen Richardson-Walsh over there!” I turn to look at Kendra with, what I can only assume would have been, a complete blank and confused look and reply “Erm, who?” Yes, yes, may the hockey gods strike me down, but I don’t keep up with what’s happening within the L3s never mind the rest of the club or national and international levels.

So on to the match…

The L3s hit the ground running and we showed our dominance, continually pushing forward into City’s D to land us at three-nil at half time. Special guest appearance today: coach James (and Harry), providing support and advice from the side of the pitch, and for a great half time pep talk.

Captain’s half time input?

Everyone looking around blankly. Tumbleweed rolls by! Silence!

No sign of the captain. Where is the captain?

Lemon vote right there, for the most inappropriate time for a loo break. But if you gotta go, you gotta go…

Second half saw City fight back with more breaks into our end, but our dominance remained, even down to the final minutes with a minor skirmish on our goal line. Well, we couldn’t let Lydia go a whole game without getting some play, could we now?

Final score four-nil with the goals coming from Kendra (2) Rhi (1) and Niamh (1). Everyone played really well and a thank you to the players that stepped in from other teams to help today. Everyone work hard and never gave up.

MoM was awarded to Niamh for general awesomeness, especially in defence (there was a good spread of votes, so a shout out to all who got one).

Of course, as expected, LoM was awarded to our very own captain, Rhi, although I did come a very (too) close second!

Kendra’s fangirling overflowed into match teas and finally, after much cajoling by the team and family members, Kendra put on her big girl pants and asked Helen Richardson-Walsh for a photo with her and her son. There was a flash of gold (medal) and smiles all round for a lovely end to a good game.