“Yoohoo”

Cambridge South Sineads 2s turned up ready and raring to go. After watching the beginning of the L3s’ eighteen-nil winning game, we felt inspired. We were fed up of losing by one so it was time for us to show the opposition what we’d got. With a new formation of Izzy dropping as a deeper forward and playing two on the wings to get that link from the mids to the forwards our aim, vocalised by Izzy, was to score one more than the opposition, Which as you will see is exactly what we did, sort of.

We started the game strong with high intensity, not knowing what UCL or RU would be like but we had a feeling it was going to be an equal match. Our defensive line consisting of Nic, Ellie, Aoife, Charlotte and Grace started well, distributing the ball beautifully to our mids, Jenny, Kirsty, Rebecca, Mary and Lauren. They then linked the ball nicely to the forwards – Flix, Izzy, Jess and Eimear. Due to lovely triangles and two-on-one support, the first goal was scored in around six minutes as the ball was passed from Lauren to Jess who drove the ball to the baseline, passing the ball to Izzy at top D who picked the ball up on her reverse, pulled it round the keeper and slotted it past the near post – GOAL! Our next goal came within the next few minutes, as Jenny could see a channel from the twenty-three to the D. She made a fantastic hit, through about six sticks, to Jess on the p-spot who scored in the bottom left corner – GOAL.

What happened next, we were not expecting. In the time we had managed to score two goals, the opposition did exactly the same. Two-two. After some more beautiful triangles from the defence to forwards, Jess scored our third goal with a nice turn around the keeper – GOAL. Within seconds the opposition scored. Three-all. The next South goal was the ball passed from Mary after using some great skills to Eimear at the top of the D, who one-touched it from the outside in, and scored across the goal in the top left-hand corner. A massive cheer, smiles and shocked faces appear with, ‘Where did that come from?’ This excitement was short lived as UCL retaliated with another goal. As we went into half time it was four-four.

We were pleased with how we were playing, with the intensity being the most we had shown all season. Winning those 50/50 balls and posting up was matched by an all-quick UCL. After half time sweets and orange slices (special thanks to Zara) we came back onto the pitch more determined than ever. We knew the win was well within our reach.

Within an instant, Jess scored her hat-trick with the ball played around the goalie, as there was some nice passes from Nic to Lauren to Izzy, who fed the ball in nicely to Jess. There was some debate from the opposition that a foot had been hit, but according to umpire James, if it hadn’t been played to the whistle it would have been a short corner. Five-four. This time the 2s were determined to keep the lead. Next came our sixth goal and Jess’s fourth. A lovely ball distributed from Grace to Rebecca on the wing who made a lovely run towards the corner, heard someone shout, made a beautiful cross to Jess at the inside of the D, who deflected it into the bottom left hand corner. Six-four!! This time we had a good feeling that we were gonig to be able to hold the lead. However UCL fought back. Despite Aoife’s effort to sprint and make some crucial tackles, an unfortunate deflection off a South stick led to UCL scoring their fifth. With some nervous subs on the sideline, the umpire was asked how long was left – fourteen minutes. Could we hold on? In our hearts the answer was, ‘Please, yes,’ but for UCL on the pitch it was a different story. With another deflection of a South stick they scored the sixth and final goal. Six-all!

Izzy took the push back and told Jess to, ‘Run fast,’ from which Jess ran too fast. In trying to change direction, she slipped and fell straight into a UCL player. The final score was six-six. South fought hard and continued the intensity throughout. Neither the supporters nor the players could believe how high scoring and how fast paced this match was. The phrase, ‘It was like watching tennis,’ was felt by all. The whole team played well and celebrated the fact their scoring mojo was back.

Man of the match votes were tight, with one vote for Aoife for running all the time, Mary for skills up and down the pitch, Ellie for good distribution, Izzy for running onto and winning every ball, Jenny for great play overall, Rebecca for her work rate and great runs. Two votes went to Jess for her goals, but the winner with three votes went to Eimear for her cracking goal.

Lemon of the match unanimously went to Jess for becoming overly friendly with the pitch. There was some laughter when it was proclaimed that Jess scored four goals and still got Lemon – what more could she do – with Eimear replying, ‘You just need to score better!’

Well played to everyone for a great match full of goals. As Dave stated on Wednesday, enough of losing, it only takes a draw which then leads to win. Well if that’s the case, we should be seeing some more points appearing. The 2s are back!

Sineads over and out!