Away at Newmarket this week we were without our captain and vice – I think we now appreciate all the more the organisational work they are doing every week! Things went mostly without a hitch – one pair of illegally coloured socks and forgotten bag of numbered bibs aside.

We were unsure about how tricky this match might be, with Jan’s pre-match predictions leaving some uncertainty as to the Newmarket team structure at this point in the season. The L4s’ squad is particularly attacker heavy but holding up the back four this week with no sub were Ginny, Sarah, Lucy and Olivia. Hats off to them for all playing a full game without a break!

After the first 10 minutes we settled into the game and were communicating well. We did well to keep our shape and there was great linking up between players along both wings. Ana had little to worry about for the most of the first half, with the majority of the action happening in the attacking D. Katy and Lou did well in the central midfield, especially with the support of Lucy; impressive by all three who weren’t in their favoured positions. Not long before half time we got a lovely goal from Emily and went into the team talk at one-nil up.

Lou was so inspired by Tess’s advice of, ‘More of the same,’ that she choked on a big glug of water earning her a fair few LoM votes. This hilarious vision got us hyped for the second half and we went back out keen to get a second goal to take us out of danger (a recurring theme with us this year actually…)

Newmarket came out fighting in the second half, but so did we. There was great commitment from Kat who put in some strong runs as per, despite feeling unwell. Liv committed so hard to a tackle that she wiped herself and her opponent out, finishing with an epic rockstar knee slide that earned her the extra few LoM votes over choking Lou. Lizzie did a great job of managing the midfield and setting up the high press, which we successfully won the ball back from multiple times. Our second goal came from a short corner rebound where we kept the pressure on them and Naomi managed (after some great scrounging) to reverse stick the ball into their backboard.

Newmarket were beginning to get rattled but seemingly focused this into some aggressive attacks, which saw them manage to creep a goal through our back line: two-one. We did really well to keep our heads and play calmly, and even with calls to ‘calm down and play defensively’ we managed to get our third goal of the game with about ten minutes to go, after Bex decisively slapped in a cross from Tess.

Perhaps with the finish line in sight and with legs getting tired we conceded a short corner which resulted in an undeniably good goal for the opposition. Three-two with five minutes on the clock. Even with support for the opposition mounting on the side lines, alongside some distractingly cute puppies, we saw out the end of the match and took home the win.

It was a good win for us, with Saturday being made all the sweeter by us being back in time to watch the L5s’ glorious victory at home, even if it does make us slightly nervous about the next derby day back at Long Road!

MoM votes were plentiful this week – in particular Lucy and Ginny both got multiple votes for their fab defensive work. LoM was tight between Lou and Liv, with Tess also getting called out for a spectacular swing and miss on a short corner.